Singapore death penalty: Who is the woman set to be hanged? What did she do?

A 45-year-old woman convict is set to be hanged in Singapore on Friday July 28, marking the first time a woman will be sent to the gallows in the country in nearly 20 years. 

The woman, who has been identified by local rights organisation Transformative Justice Collective (TJC), was sentenced to death in 2018. 

But who is the woman set to be hanged? What crime did she commit that resulted in her being hit with the death penalty? 

Read on below for everything you need to know about the first woman to be hanged in Singapore in nearly two decades. 

A 45-year-old woman convict is set to be hanged in Singapore on Friday July 28, as she is the first woman to be sent to the gallows in the country in nearly 20 years (file image of an activist protesting an executioning Singapore in 2021)

Who is the woman set to be hanged in Singapore? 

Saridewi Djamani, 45, is set to be sent to the gallows and become the first woman to be executed in Singapore since 2004 when 36-year-old hairdresser Yen May Woen was hanged for drug trafficking, said TJC activist Kokila Annamalai.

‘Once she exhausted her appeal options it was a matter of time that she would be given an execution notice,’ said Kirsten Han, a journalist and activist who has spent a decade campaigning against the death penalty.

‘The authorities are not moved by the fact that most of the people on death row come from marginalised and vulnerable groups. The people who are on death row are those deemed dispensable by both the drug kingpins and the Singapore state. This is not something Singaporeans should be proud of’, she said, according to The Guardian. 

Singapore imposes the death penalty for certain crimes, including murder and some forms of kidnapping, with the country adamant that it serves as an effective crime-stopping measure. 

At least 13 people have been hanged so far since the Singaporean government resumed executions following a two-year hiatus in place during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Why was the woman in Singapore given the death penalty? 

Ms Djamani was sentenced to death in 2018 for trafficking around 30 grams of heroin.

Tragically, she is not the only individual facing the death penalty for an offence related to drug trafficking. 

Mohd Aziz bin Hussain, 56, was convicted of trafficking 50 grams of heroin is also scheduled to be hanged on Wednesday at the Southeast Asian city-state’s Changi Prison. 

At least 13 people have been hanged so far since the government resumed executions following a two-year hiatus in place during the Covid-19 pandemic. One of them is Nazeri Lajim, who was executed for drugs trafficking on July 22, 2022 (pictured: his sister putting flowers on his grave at a cemetery in Singapore)

Rights watchdog Amnesty International has urged Singapore to halt the impending executions. 

‘There is no evidence that the death penalty has a unique deterrent effect or that it has any impact on the use and availability of drugs,’ said Chiara Sangiorgio, a death penalty expert at Amnesty. 

‘As countries around the world do away with the death penalty and embrace drug policy reform, Singapore’s authorities are doing neither’, Ms Sangiorgio added. 

Prison officials are yet to confirm TJC’s claim of the two upcoming executions, which are just days away.