The prison sentences imposed on V Veeran, 41, and MS Sasitharan, 32, start from the date of their arrests on June 23, 2014, and June 25, 2014, respectively.

The five-member bench, led by Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Abdul Rahman Sebli, along with Federal Court judges Harmindar Singh Dhaliwal, Nordin Hassan, Abu Bakar Jais and Hanipah Farikullah, allowed the duo’s review applications.

The review applications were filed by the two men following the enactment of the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, which came into effect on July 4 last year.

Veeran and Sasitharan were convicted and sentenced to death by the High Court in 2016 for the murder of 24-year-old S Vijaindran, who was attacked in a five-foot way at Jalan Tasek SS/1, in Bandar Tasik Mutiara, Seberang Prai Selatan, Penang, at 11pm, on June 4, 2011.

Their appeals were subsequently dismissed by the Court of Appeal in 2017, and by the Federal Court in 2019.

Lawyers T Vijayandran, representing Veeran, and Abdul Rashid Ismail, representing Sasitharan, appealed to the court to commute the death sentences to jail terms.

However, deputy public prosecutor Tetralina Ahmed Fauzi argued that the death sentences should be maintained due to the brutal nature of the murder.

Tetralina said that based on the facts of the case, the applicants had chased and attacked the deceased with a parang, inflicting a total of 22 wounds.