PUTRAJAYA, Sept 17 — Two general workers escaped the gallows when the Federal Court commuted their death sentence today, which was reduced to 30 years in prison and 12 lashes of the rotan for killing a farm worker in an oil palm plantation seven years ago.
A unanimous decision by a three-judge panel chaired by Datuk Harmindar Singh Dhaliwal rejected the appeal of A. Rames, 47, and Tew Siew Kem, 46, to set aside their conviction, and the court replaced the death sentence with a prison sentence.
“The appeal against conviction was without merit and the conviction against the appellants is affirmed. We therefore allow the appeal against the sentence by substituting the death penalty with a 30-year jail term and 12 strokes of the rotan,” said Judge Harmindar, who sat with judges Datuk Abu Bakar Jais and Datuk Vazeer Alam Mydin.
The prison sentence imposed on Rames starts from the date of his arrest on May 15, 2017, while Tew's starts on November 8, 2018.
Judge Harmindar said there was no miscarriage of justice because Tew or his lawyer were given every opportunity to see the court transcripts and recordings and recall any prosecution witness.
“Two witnesses were called back and cross-examined by the lawyer. Therefore, we find no merit on this ground,” he said.
Furthermore, Judge Harmindar said there was no merit in the appellant's argument that the trial judge failed to appreciate the inconsistencies and contradictions between the testimony of the two prosecution witnesses.
“The trial judge had carefully considered the inconsistencies and came to the right conclusion that these two witnesses were credible despite the inconsistencies. Under the circumstances, we find that the convictions are safe,” he said.
According to the case, Rames was charged with another person who is still at large for killing A. Arumugam at a palm oil plantation in Jalan Rawang, Bestari Jaya in Kuala Selangor between 11.30pm, April 3, 2017, and 7.15am on April 4, 2017.
Tew was charged with abetting Rames to commit the offence, according to Section 302 of the Penal Code read with Section 34 of the same code, which provides for the death penalty or imprisonment for a minimum of 30 years and a maximum of 40 years and no less than 12 lashes of the rotan.
The prosecution was led by Deputy Public Prosecutor Datin Asmah Musa, Rames was represented by lawyer M. Manoharan, while lawyers V. Ayasamy and Renuka Krishnasamy represented Tew.
— Bernama
