A 40-year-old Singaporean woman who claimed she was stocking up on heroin for her own use during the fasting month has failed in her bid to escape the death penalty.
Saridewi Djamani, who was charged with trafficking a total of 1kg of drugs containing 30.72g of pure heroin, also claimed she was suffering from persistent depressive disorder and severe substance use disorder.
In his grounds of decision released on Thursday (20 September), for his sentence delivered last Friday (14 September), High Court judge See Kee Oon noted that Saridewi did not deny selling heroin, methamphetamine, cannabis and Erimin from her HDB flat but sought to downplay the scale of her trafficking business.
The High Court had heard how on 17 June 2016, at about 3.35pm, Saridewi’s accomplice Muhammad Haikal Abdullah, 41, met her at the block of her flat. He 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.
She was charged with trafficking 30.72g of heroin, while Haikal was charged with trafficking 28.22g of the drug. Under the law, those in possession of more than 2g of heroin are presumed to have the drug for trafficking, unless proven otherwise.
During the trial, Saridewi said she had wanted to keep 19.01g of heroin for her own use and sell the remaining 11.71g, claiming that it was due to the fasting month and that she predicted her heroin consumption would rise to as much as 12g a day. The death penalty applies to those who traffick more than 15g of heroin.
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Singaporean woman sentenced to death for drug trafficking