Singapore: Two drug convicts in Singapore are scheduled to be executed this week, including the first woman to be hanged in almost 20 years, according to rights organisations, who also called for an end to the executions on Tuesday.
A 56-year-old man found guilty of trafficking 50 grammes (1.76 ounces) of heroin is set to be hanged on Wednesday at Changi Prison in the Southeast Asian city-state, according to local rights group Transformative Justice Collective (TJC).
On Friday, a 45-year-old female convict who TJC identified as Saridewi Djamani will also be hanged. In 2018, she received a death sentence for distributing about 30 grammes of heroin.
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According to TJC activist Kokila Annamalai, if the sentence is carried out, she would be the first woman to be executed in Singapore since Yen May Woen, a 36-year-old hairdresser, was hanged for drug trafficking in 2004.
The two inmates, according to TJC, are Singaporeans, and their families have been notified of the dates of their executions. Prison administrators were asked for confirmation via email by AFP, but they have not responded.
Singapore has a death penalty for some crimes, such as some types of kidnapping and murder.
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It also has some of the strictest anti-drug laws in the world, with the death penalty an option for trafficking 15 grammes of heroin and more than 500 grammes of cannabis.
Since the government started carrying out executions again after a two-year hiatus brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, at least 13 people have been hanged so far.
Amnesty International, a rights organisation, pleaded with Singapore on Tuesday to put an end to the upcoming executions. In a statement, Chiara Sangiorgio, an expert on the death penalty for Amnesty International, said that it was "unconscionable" that Singaporean authorities were still pursuing more executions in the name of drug control.
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"There is no proof that the death penalty deters crime in a special way or that it has any bearing on drug use and accessibility.
Sangiorgio continued, "While nations around the world abolish the death penalty and embrace drug policy reform, Singapore's authorities are doing neither. Singapore maintains that the death penalty is a powerful deterrent to crime.