Justice Hadhariah Syed Ismail, who chaired a three-member panel in the Court of Appeal, described V Mathiyalagan’s act on his spouse as a heinous crime.
“You took the life of your wife. However, we also considered that you are now on dialysis,” said Hadhariah, who sat with Justices Azman Abdullah and Azizul Azmi Adnan.
The court ordered the 53-year-old former scrap metal collector’s jail term to begin from the date of his arrest, but spared him the 12 lashes of the rotan prescribed by law following the abolition of the mandatory death sentence effective from July 4.
Section 289 of the Criminal Procedure Code exempts males aged 50 years and above from being whipped.
In 2019, the Alor Setar High Court sentenced Mathiyalagan to death after finding him guilty of murdering R Ratna at the couple’s home in Sungai Petani, Kedah, on May 26, 2017.
Mathiyalagan appealed to the Court of Appeal against both the conviction and sentence, but withdrew his appeal against conviction.
Earlier, lawyer T Jayaraj urged the bench to exercise its discretion to impose a custodial sentence in lieu of the death penalty.
Deputy public prosecutor Noorhisham Jaafar did not object but proposed the maximum 40-year jail term.
The facts of the case revealed that Ratna ran out of the house for help after she was torched but died at the Sultanah Bahiyah Hospital in Alor Setar on June 6, 2017.
Evidence was given during the trial that Mathiyalagan led police to recover the lighter and plastic water bottle that was used to fill petrol.
In another case, the same bench sentenced contractor Hafiz Mohamad to 35 years in jail and 12 strokes of the rotan for the murder of his would-be brother-in-law, Shukri Husin, outside the Kuala Terengganu district religious office seven years ago.
“The whipping must be executed as soon as possible,” said Hadhariah.
Earlier, deputy public prosecutor Atiqah Abdul Karim urged the bench to impose the maximum sentence of 40 years, saying that a life was mercilessly taken away.
She said Hafiz had repeatedly attacked Shukri with a knife, leaving a stab wound 9cm deep in his chest.
Mazlan proposed a 30-year jail term from the date of arrest, saying it will allow Hafiz to make a fresh start after his release from prison.