Judge Akhtar Tahir delivered the verdict against the five – T Shasitaran, 38, M Ashogan, 39, Muhamad Sultan Ahmad Kabil, 43, Ong Shan Chia, 37, and Yoh Shyh Ming, 33 – and also sentenced them to 10 strokes of the rotan each.

The five have been in prison since they were arrested on Oct 3, 2016.

They were charged under Section 3(1) of the Kidnapping Act 1961, read with Section 34 of the Penal Code, which provides for the death sentence or life imprisonment upon conviction.

The five were spared the gallows as Akhtar ruled that no extreme violence had been inflicted on the victim, Hawazanajmi K Shahapudeen, 66.

“The victim was just handcuffed and his thumb was injured. On that ground, I sentence all the accused to life in prison starting from the date they were arrested.

“Whipping is mandatory. Therefore, I order 10 strokes of the rotan for each accused,” he said.

Hawazanajmi was kidnapped in Bayan Lepas on Sept 28, 2016 and held for several days while his family was asked to pay a RM3 million ransom.

However, the police managed to foil their plan and arrested them.

They were charged and put on trial in Penang, but the verdict was only delivered here today after Akhtar was transferred from Penang to Kuala Lumpur.

Lawyers K Thangasvaran, Anthony Chew and R Dev Chander represented Shasitaran, Ashogan and Muhamad Sultan, respectively. Ong and Yoh were represented by Ravi Chandran.

Deputy public prosecutor Muna Mohamed Jaafar prosecuted the case.