A three-member bench chaired by Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat said the imposition of capital punishment on former lawyer N Pathmanabhan, 55, and ex-farmhand T Thilaiyalagan, 33, was appropriate.

“The modus operandi of the murders is related to the applicants’ convictions, which we are not prepared to review. Based on the facts and circumstances of the case, the review is dismissed,” she said.

Fellow convict R Kathavarayan also applied for a review of his sentence, but lawyer Latheefa Koya told the court today that her client was withdrawing the application.

The trio had sought to have their death sentences commuted to imprisonment following the enactment of the Mandatory Death Penalty Abolition Act 2023, which gives judges the discretion to impose either the death penalty or a prison sentence of between 30 to 40 years.

Also sitting to hear the applications were Justices Nordin Hassan and Abu Bakar Jais.

Despite the ruling, all three convicts retain the right to file a petition for clemency with the Selangor Pardons Board to secure a commutation of their death sentences to prison terms.

On March 16, 2017, a five-member Federal Court bench led by then chief justice Arifin Zakaria said there was overwhelming evidence linking the trio to the crime.

Arifin had said the circumstantial evidence was strong and noted that all three men had given police information leading to the discovery of evidence.

He said their conduct proved they had a hand in the crime.

In May 2013, the trio, along with farmworker R Mathan, were convicted by the Shah Alam High Court of murdering Sosilawati, 47, her driver, Kamaruddin Shamsuddin, 44, bank officer Noorhisham Mohamad, 38, and lawyer Ahmad Kamil Abdul Karim, 32.

They were found to have committed the offence between 8.30pm and 9.45pm on Aug 30, 2010, at Jalan Tanjong Layang in Tanjung Sepat, Banting, Selangor.

In December 2015, the Court of Appeal dismissed their appeals and affirmed their conviction and sentence.

However, in 2017, the Federal Court acquitted Mathan, holding there was insufficient evidence to link him to the murders.

Earlier today, lawyer Manjeet Singh Dhillon, who appeared for Pathmanabhan, argued that the prosecution failed to establish the modus operandi of the accused in committing the murders.

He said it was unclear from the evidence if the victims were burnt to death or if their bodies were burnt subsequently.

Manjeet pleaded for his client to be allowed to serve a jail term. “My client has been dying every day due to pain and anguish following the incarceration,” he said.

Lawyer Amer Hamzah Arshad, representing Thilaiyalagan, urged the bench to give his client a second chance as he was a youth offender when the murders took place.

Deputy public prosecutor Dusuki Mokhtar said the death penalty should be maintained as the murders were brutal and gruesome.

“Their acts were inhumane and there were elements of violence because there was evidence of splattered blood stains on the walls at the crime scene,” he said.