Singapore Supreme Court sentences woman to death for drug trafficking

A 40-year-old Singaporean woman, Saridewi Djamani, has been sentenced to death after she was found guilty of trafficking a total of 1kg of drugs containing 30.72g of pure heroin.

Djamani who was arrested in 2018, will be the second drug convict to be executed in one week after fellow Singaporean Mohd Aziz bin Hussain, was executed last week, and will be the first woman to be handed the death penalty in 20 years, according to human rights groups.

In her defence, Djamani claimed she was suffering from persistent depressive disorder and severe substance use disorder and was stocking up on heroin for her own use during the fasting month but the plea was discarded by the court.

Read also: Singaporean woman faces death by firing squad in China after drugs were found in goods she transported for Nigerian man

Prosecutors told the court that on 17 June 2016, at about 3.35pm, one of Djamani’s accomplices, Muhammad Haikal Abdullah, met her at the block of her flat and passed her a plastic bag containing drugs in exchange for two envelopes containing $15,550 in total.

“Unbeknownst to the duo, officers from the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) were monitoring them. Haikal, a Malaysian, was intercepted at a traffic junction on his motorcycle shortly after he left the block.

“Meanwhile, officers went to Saridewi’s flat to arrest her. Upon hearing movements outside the door, she threw plastic bags containing drugs out of her kitchen window on the 16th floor. Saridewi then let the CNB officers into her home before they could cut through the metal grille gate.”

In his ruling on Thursday, High Court Judge See Kee Oon noted that Djamani did not deny selling heroin, methamphetamine, cannabis and Erimin from her HDB flat but sought to downplay the scale of her trafficking business.

“Based on her account that she was consuming one to two straws every three days, (one of the drug exhibits) would have lasted Saridewi about 682 days… The need to stock up almost two years’ worth of supply of (heroin) was unbelievable,” said the judge.

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