Singapore is scheduled to execute a woman for the first time in over 20 years, human rights activists said.
Saridewi Djamani, a Singaporean national, was found guilty of trafficking 30 grammes (1.06oz) of heroin in 2018.
She will be the 15th drug offender to be killed since March 2022, after fellow Singaporean Mohd Aziz bin Hussain.
Lion City has some of the strictest anti-drug regulations in the world, which it claims are vital to safeguarding society.
Aziz was found guilty of smuggling 50 grammes of heroin. Lion City legislation allows for the death penalty for trafficking more than 15 grammes of heroin or 500 grammes of cannabis.
Tangaraju Suppiah, another Singaporean, was hanged in April for trafficking 1kg (35oz) of cannabis that he never touched. Authorities claim he coordinated the deal over the phone.
When approached by the BBC, Singapore’s Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) denied commenting on Djamani’s case.
The CNB previously said that Aziz had “full due process” and that his appeal against his conviction and sentence was denied in 2018.
British entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson has once again chastised Singapore for its executions, claiming that the death penalty is ineffective as a deterrent to crime.
“Small-scale drug traffickers require assistance because most are bullied as a result of their circumstances,” Mr. Branson remarked on Twitter.
He claims that it is not too late to avert Saridewi’s execution.
According to the Transformative Justice Collective, a Singapore-based human rights organisation, Saridewi is one of two women on death row in Singapore.
According to the organisation, she would be the first woman hanged by the city-state since hairstylist Yen May Woen in 2004. Yen was also charged with cocaine trafficking.
Saridewi stated during her trial that she was stockpiling heroin for personal use during the Islamic fasting month.
While she did not deny selling narcotics like heroin and methamphetamine from her flat, judge See Kee Oon remarked that she understated the magnitude of such operations.
Authorities maintain that stringent drug regulations keep Lion City one of the safest locations in the world and that capital punishment for drug offences is widely supported by the population.
However, opponents of the death penalty reject this.
“There is no evidence that the death penalty has a unique deterrent effect or has any impact on the use and availability of drugs,” said Chiara Sangiorgio of Amnesty International in a statement.
“The only message that these executions send is that Singapore’s government is willing to once again defy international safeguards on the use of the death penalty,” she added.
According to Amnesty International, Lion City is one of just four nations that have lately carried out drug-related executions, along with China, Iran, and Saudi Arabia.
Chronicle NG reports that Singapore, known variously as the “Lion City” or “Garden City,” the latter for its many parks and tree-lined streets, has also been called “instant Asia” because it offers the tourist an expeditious glimpse into the cultures brought to it by immigrants from all parts of Asia.
