PETALING JAYA: The individuals involved in the murder of cosmetics entrepreneur Datuk Sosilawati Lawiya and her three aides in 2010 have failed to overturn their death sentence.
The Federal Court bench led by Chief Justice Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat upheld the death sentence for former lawyer Datuk N. Pathmanaban, 55, and two of his farm workers, the New Straits Times reported.
The former lawyer’s farmhands T. Thilaiyalagan, 33 and R. Kathavarayan, 44 earlier filed for an application to review their sentences to be commuted to imprisonment following the Mandatory Death Penalty Abolition Act 2023 effective on July 4 last year.
On Aug 30 2010, Sosilawati, together with her lawyer, Ahmad Kamil Abdul Karim, 32, driver, Kamaruddin Shamsuddin, 44, and bank officer Noorhisham Mohamad, 38 headed to Banting for a meeting with Pathmanaban at his office to discuss a multi-million ringgit land deal.
The police later learned that Sosilawati and her three aides were ordered to be killed in the former lawyer’s farm.
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The farm workers physically assaulted the four victims and burned their corpses on a makeshift pyre, later disposing their ashes as well as their belongings into a nearby river and other nearby locations.
A month after the incident, Pathmanabhan and the farmhands, T. Thilaiyagan, 20, R. Matan, 21 and R. Khatavarayan, 31, were charged in court for the murders.
On top of that, two other workers, who confessed to aiding in the killings were also charged for getting rid of evidence and were jailed for seven years however the Shah Alam High Court overturned the punishment four months later and increased it to 20 years.
In May 2013, the Shah Alam High Court then sentenced the former lawyer and the three farmhands to death for the killings where in 2017, the Federal Court upheld the conviction but acquitted Matan as he could not be linked to the incident due to insufficient evidence.
ALSO READ: Sosilawati murder: Two farmhands allowed additional grounds in appeal
