PUTRAJAYA, Oct 10 — Two followers of the deviant sect group 'Tuhan Harun' convicted of murder escaped the gallows when the Federal Court replaced their death sentence today with 40 years' imprisonment.
The two men were convicted of the 2013 murder of the Pahang Islamic Religious Department's enforcement Division's principal assistant director Ahmad Raffli Abd Malek.
This followed a decision by a three-judge panel led by Chief Justice Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat in allowing the review application by Sumustapha Suradi, 50, and Shamsinar Abdul Halim, 47, to replace the death penalty with imprisonment under the Revision of Sentence of Death and Imprisonment for Natural Life (Temporary Jurisdiction of The Federal Court) Act 2023.
"The applications by both applicants are allowed. The death penalty is replaced with imprisonment. Shamsinar is sentenced to 40 years in prison from the date of his arrest on February 22, 2014, and 12 strokes of the cane, while Sumustapha to 40 years in prison from the date of his arrest on November 27, 2013," said Judge Tengku Maimun when delivering the unanimous decision.
The other two judges are Court of Appeal president Tan Sri Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim and Datuk Nordin Hassan.
On December 27, 2016, the Kuantan High Court sentenced the two men to death after finding them guilty of the murder.
Raffli, 49, was shot in front of his house in Bandar Indera Mahkota, Kuantan on November 10, 2013.
Their appeal to the Court of Appeal was dismissed on February 8, 2018, and on November 29 the same year, the Federal Court upheld the death sentence.
The cult leader Harun Mat Saat, better known as 'Tuhan Harun', was also charged with conspiring in the murder.
However, the charge against him was dropped on August 26, 2016, following his death at the Tengku Ampuan Afzan Hospital in Kuantan on August 16 due to respiratory problems.
— Bernama
