KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA – Singapore carried out its first execution of a girl in 19 years Friday and its second hanging this week for drug trafficking regardless of requires the city-state to stop capital punishment for drug-related crimes.
Activists stated one other execution is ready subsequent week.
Saridewi Djamani, 45, had been sentenced to demise in 2018 for trafficking almost 31 grams of diamorphine, or pure heroin, the Central Narcotics Bureau stated. Its assertion stated the quantity was ‘ample to feed the dependancy of about 370 abusers for per week.’
Singapore’s legal guidelines mandate the demise penalty for anybody convicted of trafficking greater than 500 grams of hashish and 15 grams of heroin.
Djamani’s execution got here two days after that of a Singaporean man, Mohammed Aziz Hussain, 56, for trafficking round 50 grams of heroin.
Singapore
The narcotics bureau stated each prisoners have been accorded due course of, together with appeals of their conviction and sentence and petition for presidential clemency.
Human rights teams, worldwide activists and the United Nations have urged Singapore to halt executions for drug offenses and say there may be growing proof it’s ineffective as a deterrent. Singapore authorities insist capital punishment is vital to halting drug demand and provide.
Human rights teams say it has executed 15 folks for drug offenses because it resumed hangings in March 2022, a median of 1 a month.
Anti-death penalty activists stated the final lady recognized to have been hanged in Singapore was 36-year-old hairdresser Yen May Woen, additionally for drug trafficking, in 2004.
Transformative Justice Collective, a Singapore group which advocates for the abolishment of capital punishment, stated a brand new execution discover has been issued to a different prisoner for Aug, 3 – the fifth this yr alone.
It stated the prisoner is an ethnic Malay citizen who labored as a supply driver earlier than his arrest in 2016. He was convicted in 2019 for trafficking round 50 grams of heroin, it stated. The group stated the person had maintained in his trial that he believed he was delivering contraband cigarettes for a good friend he owed cash and he did not confirm the contents of the bag as he trusted his good friend.
Although the courtroom discovered he was merely a courier, the person nonetheless needed to be given the obligatory demise penalty, it stated. The group ‘condemns, within the strongest phrases, the state’s bloodthirsty streak’ and reiterated requires an instantaneous moratorium on the usage of the demise penalty.
Critics say Singapore’s harsh coverage merely punish low-level traffickers and couriers, who’re usually recruited from marginalized teams with vulnerabilities. They say Singapore can be out of step with the development of extra nations transferring away from capital punishment. Neighboring Thailand has legalized hashish whereas Malaysia ended the obligatory demise penalty for severe crimes this yr.