The Federal Court today substituted the death penalty for a sentence of life imprisonment imposed on an Al-Ma'unah member convicted of planning a "holy war" to topple Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
The court handed down the decision after hearing appeals from 19 members of the Al-Ma'unah group, three of whom had already been sentenced to death, while the other 16 had been given life imprisonment, the official Bernama news agency reported.
The prosecution had lodged a cross-appeal for increased sentences on all 16 who escaped the death penalty, but the judges only changed the sentence on 32-year-old mechanic Jemari Jusoh, who shot dead a soldier.