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Singapore on Friday hanged a woman convicted of attempting to traffic an ounce of heroin, the first execution of a female prisoner in nearly two decades in what human rights groups decried as a “grim milestone” for the city state and its notoriously harsh anti-drug laws.
Saridewi Djamani, a 45-year-old Singaporean, was put to death on Friday in Changi Prison, the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) said in a statement issued hours after the hanging took place.
She was sentenced to the mandatory death penalty in 2018 after being convicted of possessing 31 grams of heroin.
“She was accorded full due process under the law and was represented by legal counsel throughout the process,” the CNB said, adding that Singapore’s laws permit the death penalty for trafficking anything above 15 grams of heroin.
Saridewi is the first woman to be hanged in Singapore since hairdresser Yen May Woen, 36, in 2004, also convicted of drug trafficking.
Singapore maintains some of the world’s harshest drug laws and its government remains adamant that capital punishment works to deter drug traffickers and maintain public safety.