A three-member bench chaired by Justice Harmindar Singh Dhaliwal also ordered A Rames, 47, and Tew Siew Kem, 46, to be given 12 strokes of the rotan.

The court ordered that Rames’s jail term be calculated from May 15, 2017, and Tew’s from Nov 8, 2018, the dates on which they were arrested.

Harmindar, in reducing the death sentence imposed by the High Court to a jail term, said this was not a case where exceptional violence was used.

“We therefore allow the appeal against sentence by substituting the death penalty with a 30-year jail term,” he said.

Harmindar, who sat with Justices Abu Bakar Jais and Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera, said the duo’s appeal against their conviction was without merit even though their lawyers submitted that a miscarriage of justice had occurred as the trial judge did not order a retrial.

He said there was also no merit in their complaint that the trial judge had failed to appreciate the inconsistencies and contradictions between the evidence of two prosecution witnesses.

“The trial judge had carefully considered the inconsistencies and came to the right conclusion that these two witnesses were credible despite the inconsistencies.

“In the circumstances, we find that the convictions are safe,” he said.

Harmindar also said Tew and his counsel were given every opportunity to view the court recording and transcript and recall any of the prosecution witnesses.

“In fact, two witnesses were recalled and were cross-examined by the defence counsel. We therefore find no merits on this ground,” he added.

Rames and Tew were jointly charged with killing A Sukumaran at an oil palm smallholding at Jalan Rawang, Bestari Jaya, in Kuala Selangor, between 11.30pm on April 3, 2017 and 7.15am the following day.

The victim had several slash wounds but the post-mortem report stated that he died from a stab to the heart.

Lawyer M Manoharan represented Rames while counsel V Ayasamy and Renuka Krishnasamy acted for Tew. Deputy public prosecutors Asmah Musa and P Sarulatha appeared for the prosecution.