Cheuk Mei Mei

Cheuk Mei Mei (; 1 January 19655 March 1994) was a 29-year-old female Hong Kong resident who was executed in Singapore for drug trafficking. Cheuk was the first foreign woman convicted of a drug offence in Singapore to be executed.

After purportedly being forced to work as a courier for a drug trafficking organization, Cheuk was arrested while in possession of over 2 kilograms of high-quality heroin during a stopover in Singapore's Changi Airport.

Despite vehemently protesting her innocence and stating that she was tricked into smuggling narcotics, Cheuk was found guilty at trial and condemned to death, with the Singaporean authorities being ultimately undeterred by pleas for clemency.

Biography Born in British Hong Kong in 1965, Cheuk Mei Mei was living in the Ho Man Tin Estate and working as a sales clerk at the time of her arrest.

Arrest at Changi Airport On 28 February 1989, Cheuk and her Hong Konger accomplice Tse Po Chung (谢宝忠) from the Wah Fu Estate

Cheuk and Tse both wore baggy denim jeans and appeared to be very nervous when questioned. The couple claimed they did not know one other, despite being seen talking to each other several times. When searched, 24 individual plastic bags full of a whitish powder were discovered strapped to the thighs and lower legs of both of them. After removing and weighing the plastic bags, Tse was found to be carrying 2.178 kilograms and Cheuk was carrying 2.190 kilograms. Using a Narcoban drug test kit, the customs officials determined the powder was heroin. into Singapore and then remanded in custody to face trial.

Trial On 6 January 1992, Deputy Public Prosecutor Jennifer Marie informed the court how customs officers on routine surveillance had spotted Cheuk and Tse disembarking from a Thai Airways flight and pulled them in for questioning. They subsequently found heroin strapped to their thighs and lower legs, as well as in their shoes. Cheuk had 2.18 kg of heroin and Tse had 2.19 kg of heroin in their possession respectively. The Prosecution claimed that when Tse was questioned by officers shortly after his arrest about the substance strapped to his body, he replied it was "pak fun", which the literal translation from Cantonese is "white powder" but in Hong Kong is the slang term for heroin, whereas Cheuk replied that she did not know what was in the plastic bags. Tse remained silent when called to give his defence, though his lawyer Freddy Neo testified that Tse had previously declared in a written statement after his arrest that he had agreed to take "something" to Holland for a moneylender he owed HK$30,000 to.

On 13 January 1992, defence lawyers asserted that Cheuk and Tse did not know they were carrying drugs, hence they were not guilty of importation. Lawyer Freddy Neo also asserted that the act of importation was compete only once goods crossed the official customs barrier, therefore the pair could not have 'imported' the drugs as they both remained in the transit lounge. He further submitted that the act of importing must have the intention of delivering it to someone in Singapore.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Jennifer Marie replied that recent court cases, such as the trial of Lau Chi Sing, had determined that 'import' meant bringing something into the country, whatever the purpose may be and regardless of whether Singapore was the ultimate destination or not, and regardless of whether it was delivered to anyone or not. She further argued that both accused must have known they were carrying drugs, as the heroin was wrapped in clear plastic cellophane bags and their contents could clearly be seen. They would also have had ample opportunity to examine the contents in the time it took to strap the packages to their legs. Trial judges Justice S. Rajendran and Justice M.P.H. Rubin commented they did not accept their defence that they did not know they were carrying drugs, stating that Tse exercising his right to silence instead of rebutting the prosecution's allegations against him gave rise to an adverse inference that he knew he was carrying illegal drugs. Likewise, Tse not rebutting the claim he said "pak fun" when asked what was strapped to his body after his arrest left the court with no option but to accept it into evidence. Although Cheuk was deemed to be tentative while giving her evidence, the judges did not believe she was so unintelligent to not realize she was carrying drugs, noting that it would be impossible to mistake the white powdery substance being secured to her legs for gold jewellery. The court also asserted that when narcotics are brought anywhere into the geographical limits of Singapore, an offence of importing is committed under the provisions of the Misuse of Drugs Act.

Appeal On 23 February 1993, the Court of Appeal dismissed their appeal and upheld their sentences. Rejecting their defence that they did not in fact import any drugs, as they were in transit and did not pass the official customs barrier, Justice Chao Hick Tin commented that Changi Airport transit lounge could theoretically be used as a centre for international drug trafficking if the word 'import' was used in the restricted sense contended by Cheuk and Tse. Conceding that 'import' could have a different technical meaning under different Acts (for example the Customs Act), Justice Chao Hick Tin asserted that there was no such ambiguity in the Misuse of Drugs Act, and import was defined therein as bringing any proscribed item into the territory of Singapore by land, sea or air.

Execution Cheuk Mei Mei and Tse Po Chung were both hanged at Changi Prison on the morning of 5 March 1994.

Cheuk Mei Mei was the first female foreigner to be executed for a drug offence in Singapore. Before that, the first Singaporean woman to be executed for drug trafficking was Low Hong Eng, a seamstress and mother of four who was hanged on 9 October 1981 for smuggling 459.3 g of diamorphine.