Singapore is set to hang two drug smugglers this week, including the first woman to face the punishment in nearly 20 years, rights groups said on Tuesday, urging an end to the executions.
According to the local rights organization Transformative Collective Justice (TJC), a 56-year-old man convicted of trafficking 50 grams of heroin is set to be hanged at Changi Prison in the Southeast Asian city-state on Wednesday.
A 45-year-old woman, identified by TJC like Saridewi Djamani, is also to be hanged on Friday, after being sentenced to death in 2018 for trafficking around 30 grams of heroin.
She is set to become the first woman to be executed in Singapore since the hanging of a 36-year-old hairdresser in 2004, said Kokila Annamalai, an activist with TJC.
The families of the convicts, both Singaporeans, have received notices setting their execution dates, according to TJC.
Prison officials did not respond to questions emailed to theAFP to get confirmation.
Singapore imposes the death penalty for certain crimes, including murder and some forms of kidnapping.
The anti-drug legislation is also among the strictest in the world. Trafficking in more than 500 grams of cannabis and 15 grams of heroin is punishable by death.
At least 13 people have been hanged since the government resumed executions, following a two-year hiatus during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Singapore is set to execute a woman for the first time in nearly 20 years, according to a local rights and freedoms group, which has been denounced by Amnesty International. A man must also suffer this fate this week. (File photo)
Photo: AFP/ARIF KARTONO/AFP via Getty
Denunciation of Amnesty International
Amnesty International, a human rights organization, called on Singapore on Tuesday to halt the impending executions.
It is unacceptable that Singapore authorities continue to carry out new executions in the name of the fight against drugs
said Chiara Sangiorgio, a death penalty specialist at Amnesty International, in a statement.
While countries around the world are abandoning the death penalty and reforming their drug policies, authorities in Singapore are doing none of these things.
Singapore insists that the death penalty has an effective deterrent effect on crime.
According to Chiara Sangiorgio, there is no evidence that the death penalty has a unique deterrent effect or has an impact on drug use and availability
.
