FORMER lawyer Datuk N. Pathmanaban and two of his farmhands failed in their attempt to overturn their death penalty for the murder of cosmetics millionaire Datuk Sosilawati Lawiya and her three aides in 2010.
A panel of three judges led by the Chief Justice, Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Man, sitting alongside Federal Court Judges Datuk Nordin Hassan and Datuk Abu Bakar Jais, unanimously dismissed the death sentence review bid by the duo.
Pathmanaban, 55; T. Thilaiyalagan, 33; and R. Kathavarayan, 44; had applied to review their death sentence to be commuted to imprisonment following the Mandatory Death Penalty Abolition Act 2023, which took effect on July 4, last year.
However, Kathavarayan, who initially filed the same review application, withdrew it this morning.
They were convicted of murder and sentenced to death over the killing, where the victims’ bodies were incinerated with logs on Pathmanabhan’s property at Jalan Tanjong Layang, Tanjung Sepat, Banting between 8.30pm and 9.45pm on Aug 30, 2010.
Their final appeal against their conviction and death sentence was dismissed by the Federal Court on March 16, 2017.
All appellants were sentenced to death by the Shah Alam High Court on May 23, 2013, after being found guilty of murdering Sosilawati, 47; bank officer Noorhisham Mohamad, 38; lawyer Ahmad Kamil Abdul Karim, 32; and Sosilawati’s assistant, Kamaruddin Shamsuddin, 44.
Pathmanabhan, R.Matan, Thilaiyalagan, and Kathavarayan failed in their appeal at the Court of Appeal on December 4, 2015.
On March 16, 2017, the Federal Court upheld the conviction and death sentence of the former lawyer and two of his farm hands but acquitted Matan for the murder of Sosilawati and her three aides.
A five-man panel chaired by Chief Justice Tun Arifin Zakaria in their judgement said there was overwhelming evidence to show that Sosilawati and her three aides were murdered at Pathmanabhan's farm in Banting.
Sosilawati and her three aides were reported missing after they allegedly went to Banting for a land deal. Their disappearance made headlines nationwide.
The four men were arrested and charged in court in 2011. - October 8, 2024
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