A three-member panel chaired by Justice Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera dismissed Shahzada Saju’s appeal against the sentence, after finding that the trial judge did not commit any appealable error when sentencing him.

“The sentence is appropriate as it was a gruesome act. This court has to consider the public interest element.

“As the victim’s husband, he is to take care of her but instead took her life,” said Vazeer, who sat with Justices Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim and SM Komathy Suppiah.

On Aug 7, 2018, Shahzada, a former waiter, was charged with the murder of Sajeda-E Bulbul, also a Bangladeshi. He was accused of committing the offence at Dang Wangi in Kuala Lumpur between July 3 and 5, 2018.

He pleaded guilty on May 26 last year, after the trial judge reduced the charge to culpable homicide not amounting to murder at the close of the prosecution case.

Earlier today, deputy public prosecutor Fuad Abdul Aziz asked for the appeal to be dismissed as the 20-year jail term was in line with the sentencing trend for the offence.

Lawyer Vijey Esvaren, who represented Shahzada, pleaded for leniency so his client could return home to care for his mother.

It was reported that the dismembered body parts were found stuffed in two luggage bags on the riverbank near World Trade Centre Kuala Lumpur.

The gory scene came to light when a man, who was watering plants near the riverbank along Jalan Ipoh, saw legs dangling out of a luggage bag.

Acting on the information, police inspected the scene and discovered another bag about 100m from the first one.

Police found hands, feet and a head in the first suitcase, and a torso in the other bag.

They arrested Shahzada in Johor Bahru on July 25, 2018.

The motive for the killing was not revealed.

In another case, the same bench maintained a 20-year jail term imposed on Goh Jie Keat, who had also pleaded guilty to killing his three-year-old niece, Serena Yip, at a house at Taman Kepong in Kuala Lumpur, on June 18, 2018.

Goh was initially charged with murder, but the charge was reduced to culpable homicide not amounting to murder after the prosecution accepted his representations in the course of the trial.

A post-mortem report revealed that there were 56 stab wounds on the victim, believed to be from a sharp object.

Earlier, lawyer N Subramaniyan suggested a jail term of between 12 and 15 years from the date of arrest, saying his client was a young offender at the time the offence was committed.

He did not dispute the number of wounds inflicted, but said the niece had repeatedly teased the accused, then aged 21, to his annoyance.

“This was not a premeditated act. It happened at the spur of the moment,” he said.

Deputy public prosecutor Norzilati Izhani Zainal submitted that the sentence was appropriate as the maximum jail term for the offence was 30 years.