Singapore executes first woman convict in nearly 20 years

SINGAPORE: Singapore on Friday hanged a 45-year-old citizen for drug trafficking, the city-state’s first execution of a woman in nearly 20 years, officials said.

The execution was carried out despite appeals from rights groups, who argue capital punishment has no proven deterrent effect on crime.

“The capital sentence of death imposed on Saridewi Binte Djamani was carried out on 28 July 2023,” the Central Narcotics Bureau said in a statement.

She was convicted of trafficking “not less than 30.72 grams” of heroin, more than twice the volume that merits the death penalty in Singapore.

Djamani, who was sentenced in 2018, “was accorded full due process under the law, and was represented by legal counsel throughout the process,” the bureau said.

“She appealed against her conviction and sentence, and the Court of Appeal dismissed her appeal on 6 October 2022,” the bureau said, adding that her plea for presidential clemency was also rejected.

Djamani is the first woman to be executed in the city-state since 2004, when Yen May Woen was hanged for drug trafficking, the Singapore Prison Service told AFP in an email.

Yen was a 36-year-old hairdresser, according to media reports.Djamani on Friday became the 15th prisoner sent to the gallows since the government resumed executions in March 2022 after a two-year pause during the Covid-19 pandemic.