A 40-year-old Singaporean woman was sentenced to death for drug trafficking. She faced charges for trafficking a total of 1kg of drugs containing 30.72g of heroin. The convict claimed that she was suffering from the persistent depressive disorder and severe substance use disorder.
During sentencing and the release of the decision on Thursday, September 20 High Court judge See Kee Oon noted that the convict, Saridewi Djamani did not deny selling heroin, methamphetamine, cannabis and Erimin from her HDB flat but urged to downplay the scale of the drug trafficking business.
The court came to know that how on June 17, 2016, at around 3.35 pm the accomplice of the woman, 41-year-old Muhammad Haikal Abdullah met her at the block of her flat. He also passed her a plastic bag that contained drugs in exchange for two envelopes, which had a total money of $15,550.
The Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) was keeping an eye on them and stopped the Malaysian citizen, Haikal at a traffic junction shortly after he left the block on his bike, while a group of officer raided Saridewi's flat to arrest her.
After the convict heard the noise outside her flat, she immediately threw plastic bags containing drugs from her kitchen window on the 16th floor. Then the woman let the officers get inside her house. However, as per reports, she faced charges for trafficking 30.72g of heroin and Haikal was charged with trafficking 28.22g of the drug.
During the trial, the woman told the court that she wanted to keep 19.01g of heroin for her own use and sell the remaining 11.71g. She also claimed that she wanted this substance due to the fasting month and that she predicted her heroin consumption would rise to as much as 12g a day. Later, the Haikal testified that he thought these drugs were either for enhancement of sexual performance or medical use, as it helps as a pain reliever.
As per the law, those in possession of more than 2g of heroin are presumed to have the drug for trafficking and people, who trade more than 15g of heroin, they are liable for a death penalty.
Justice See, in grounds of decision, pointed out inconsistencies in Saridewi's claims about her heroin consumption rate. She once told an investigator that she stopped smoking heroin since her release from prison in 2014, and during the court hearing she claimed to have elapsed and was a severe heroin addict.
The judge stated that based on the accounts that the accused 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."
As per courts documents, a psychiatrist from the Institute of Mental Health diagnosed her and found that she had a long history of drug abuse but she never suffered from any kind of mental illness or any disability.
The Malaysian male, Haikal was sentenced to life imprisonment with the mandatory 15 strokes of the cane, while the main accused of this case Saridewi faced the death penalty but she will appeal against her sentence.
