A three-member review panel chaired by Justice Harmindar Singh said the circumstances of Awari Ahmad’s crime were quite exceptional.

“However, there was one mitigating factor in that he was only 22 years old when the incident took place,” said Harmindar.

The bench ordered the jail term to begin from March 1, 2015, and Awari is to be given 12 strokes of the rotan as he is below 50 years of age.

The panel, which also comprised Justices Abu Bakar Jais and Hanipah Farikullah, allowed Awari’s review application under the Revision of Sentence of Death and Imprisonment for Natural Life (Temporary Jurisdiction of the Federal Court) Act 2023.

Harmindar said Awari’s rape conviction, which carried 18 years in jail and 12 strokes of the rotan, would run concurrently.

As such, he would be caned 24 times, the maximum allowed under the law.

On Oct 7, 2020, the Federal Court ruled that there was no appealable error by the trial judge in the High Court to warrant an intervention.

Deputy public prosecutor Atiqah Abdul Karim today submitted that the death penalty should be maintained as the crimes were committed in a brutal, aggressive and vicious manner.

Lawyer Gurbachan Singh conceded it was a serious crime and that a life had been taken.

“He did not go to the victim’s house armed with a murder weapon. His crime does not fall within the rarest of the rare category to sustain the death penalty,” said the lawyer, who was assisted by Gobindeep Singh.

Gurbachan said his client, now 31, was a first-time offender and that he regretted his action.

The Kota Bharu High Court sentenced Awari to death after he was found guilty of murdering Yashmin Fauzi at her home in Kampung Batu Papan, near Gua Musang, between 12.30am and 2am on March 1, 2015.

He had also raped the 25-year-old woman, a mother of three, at the same place and time.

The High Court judgment said it was clear that the accused intended on murdering Yashmin by attacking her with the parang repeatedly.

The incident was also witnessed by the victim’s son, then aged five, who saw his mother being slashed on the neck and raped.

The other two children, aged three years and six months, were asleep.

The facts of the case revealed that Yashmin and the accused were family friends.

On the fateful day, the accused broke into the house with the initial aim of committing robbery.

Awari then slashed the victim’s neck twice and inflicted other bodily injuries.

As she was gasping for breath, the accused raped her before escaping with RM200 and the victim’s mobile phone.

The semi-nude Yashmin then crawled out of the house and was found unconscious by her husband, an auxiliary policeman, who returned home from duty at 2am.

He then sought help from his father, who was living nearby, before rushing Yashmin to the Gua Musang district hospital, where she died at 6.30am.

Before she died, Yashmin managed to write a note identifying her assailant.

Investigations also revealed that Awari went to a restaurant and became drunk after consuming seven bottles of beer.

Yasmin’s son also recognised Awari during an eye-witness parade.

The same panel also commuted the death penalty of an ex-security guard to 38 years in jail for the murder of the then Perak veterinary department deputy director Rohani Kassim.

Harmindar said the saving grace was that Syahmie Hassan was 20 years old when he committed the offence. His jail term is to begin from Aug 4, 2011.

In Jan 2018, a five-man Federal Court affirmed the conviction and sentence of the lower courts.

Syahmie had killed Rohani, 38, inside an apartment unit in Persiaran Lembah Perpaduan, Permai Lake View, in Ulu Kinta, Perak, on Aug 3, 2011.

Evidence showed that he had broken into the apartment and not only murdered Rohani by choking her to death, but had also had sex with her corpse.

Today, deputy public prosecutor How May Ling pressed for the death sentence after saying that the incident shocked the conscience of society.

Lawyer Abdul Rashid Ismail said his client, who suffered from a mental disorder as he had been in prison for 13 years, had reformed.

“Further incarceration will delay his rehabilitation process,” he said, adding that Syahmie had become a bilal leading prayer meetings in prison.