On the afternoon of 17 June 2016, at her flat in
Sengkang, Saridewi, then 38 years old, was arrested by the
Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) for possible drug trafficking, after she was spotted with another man under the surveillance of the narcotics officers at her
void deck for a suspected drug transaction. The man, a
Malaysian named
Muhammad Haikal bin Abdullah, was arrested at a traffic junction nearby Saridewi's HDB block moments after he departed from the block on his motorcycle, and they recovered an envelope containing
SGD$10,050 in cash and another containing SGD$5,500 in cash from Haikal's possession. At Saridewi's flat, a plastic bag containing drugs, consisting of about 30.72g of
heroin was seized by the officers. Saridewi reportedly threw away her packets of drugs out of her kitchen window on the 16th floor before answering the door. Both Saridewi and Muhammad Haikal were charged with drug trafficking; Saridewi was charged with trafficking 30.72g of heroin, while Muhammad Haikal was charged with trafficking 28.22g of the same drug. Under the
Misuse of Drugs Act, the
death penalty was
mandatory should a person be found guilty of trafficking at least 15g of heroin, although the law also allows judges the discretion to sentence drug offenders to
life imprisonment (with the offender liable to
caning) if they merely acted as couriers or suffered from
diminished responsibility. Both the suspects were brought to trial on 11 April 2018 for their charges. During the trial, Saridewi did not deny that she had sold heroin,
methamphetamine,
marijuana and
Erimin from her HDB flat, but argued that out of the 30.72g of heroin, 19.01g of this was meant for her consumption and the remaining 11.71g would be for the purpose of trafficking, and she only stocked up a lot of these drugs for the fasting month
Ramadan since her daily intake of drugs increased around that time. Saridewi also submitted a psychiatric report that she was suffering from persistent depressive disorder and severe substance use disorder, and made claims that her statements were not made voluntarily because she was suffering from drug withdrawal symptoms and could not coherently give the accurate account of the offence she committed. As for Saridewi's co-accused Muhammad Haikal, he testified that when he delivered the drugs to Saridewi, he did not know it was heroin, and instead, he believed that he was delivering medical drugs for pain relief or for enhancing sexual performance. On 6 July 2018, after a trial lasting 13 days, the verdict was delivered by the trial judge
See Kee Oon. Justice See rejected Saridewi's defence, citing the inconsistencies in Saridewi's claims about her rate of heroin consumption. In her police statement during investigations, she said she stopped smoking heroin since her release from prison in 2014. But in court, she testified she was suffering from a relapse and was a severe drug addict. Her urine test after her arrest in June 2016 also did not detect the presence of drugs. Justice See also found that Saridewi's various inconsistent accounts were an attempt to downplay the scale of her drug trafficking scheme, and noted that a government psychiatrist did not detect Saridewi suffering from any mental disorder despite her long history of drug abuse. He also stated that it was unbelievable that Saridewi would want to stock up a two-year supply of drugs to match up to her intake of one or two sticks per every three days (these drugs alone would be sufficient for Saridewi to consume for 282 days). Therefore, the judge found Saridewi guilty as charged and convicted her accordingly. Similarly, Muhammad Haikal's defence was rejected and he was hence convicted of drug trafficking as well, since he failed to rebut the presumption that he was aware of the nature of the drugs he delivered to Saridewi. During the sentencing phase on the same day, Justice See found that based on the evidence, Saridewi was not acting as a courier and also did not suffer from diminished responsibility. Furthermore, the Prosecution did not certify that Saridewi had substantively assisted the CNB in disrupting drug trafficking activities. Therefore, she was ineligible for the alternate sentence of life imprisonment and was sentenced to death, the sole sentencing option available for her case. Saridewi's lawyers expressed they would
appeal against her conviction and sentence. On the other hand, Saridewi's 41-year-old accomplice Muhammad Haikal bin Abdullah, who only acted as a courier and provided full cooperation with the authorities during investigations, was spared the gallows and instead, he was sentenced to life imprisonment and
15 strokes of the cane, with his sentence to commence from the date of his arrest as well as the possibility of parole after 20 years. Muhammad Haikal, who did not appeal, is currently serving his life sentence at
Changi Prison. ==Appeal==