Sosilawati murder: Two farmhands allowed additional grounds in appeal

PUTRAJAYA: Two farmhands convicted of the murder of cosmetics millionaire Datuk Sosilawati Lawiya and her three aides have been allowed by the Court of Appeal here today, to include additional grounds in their petitions of appeal.

A three-member panel chaired by Justice Datuk Aziah Ali granted R. Mathan and R. Kathavarayan's application to make amendments to their respective petitions of appeal to include the additional grounds when deputy public prosecutor Saiful Idris Zainuddin did not object.

They made their applications separately, through counsel Amer Hamzah Arshad and Hisyam Teh Poh Teik, respectively.

Matan, 24, Kathavarayan, 35, and two others, former lawyer N. Pathmanabhan, 45, and farmhand, T. Thilaiyalagan, 23, were sentenced to death for the murder of Sosilawati, 47, her driver, Kamaruddin Shamsuddin, 44, bank officer Noorhisham Mohamad, 38, and lawyer Ahmad Kamil Abdul Karim, 32.

They were found guilty by the High Court in Shah Alam on May 23, 2013, of committing the murders at Lot 2001, Jalan Tanjong Layang, Tanjung Sepat in Banting between 8.30pm and 9.45pm on Aug 30, 2010.
Their appeal against the conviction and death sentence has been set for five days, beginning May 18.

Meanwhile in the court proceedings today, Amer Hamzah said the four accused would apply to include additional record of appeal to the main appeal record concerning a high court's decision which set aside their subpoenas on three deputy public prosecutors - Ishak Mohd Yusoff, Saiful Edris and Idham Abd Ghani to become witnesses in their trial.

The move to call them as witnesses was made by the defence in the course of the trial in seeking to expunge two exhibits presented by the three deputy public prosecutors at the end of the prosecution's case in an attempt to discredit two farm workers, U. Suresh and K. Sarawanan, who were called as prosecution witnesses in the trial but had allegedly turned hostile.

On Sept 13, 2012, the Court of Appeal struck out the appeal brought by the four with regard to that high court's decision after ruling that the matter was not appealable as it was a decision made in the midst of the trial which did not finally dispose of the rights of the accused.

Aziah, who presided on the panel with justices Datuk Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat and Datuk Seri Zakaria Sam fixed March 31 to hear their application.
In his judgement to find the four guilty of the murder charge, High Court Judge Datuk Akhtar Tahir concluded that land matters figured as the key motive in the murder of Sosilawati for the reason of Pathmanabhan's inability to honour the cheque issued to the cosmetics millionaire.

He had said, based on the information given, the police discovered a burnt patch at the back of the farm and, upon digging the burnt spot, the police unearthed bones whereby some of them (bones) were later confirmed by an expert to be human bones that were charred, showing they had been burnt at very high temperature. – Bernama