Man who raped, killed 85-year-old gets death sentence commuted

The Federal Court today has commuted the death sentence of a former lorry driver who murdered an 85-year-old woman after raping and sodomising her in 2019, to 40 years in prison.

A three-judge panel consisting of judges Harmindar Singh Dhaliwal, Nordin Hassan and Abu Bakar Jais, dismissed K Sathiaraj's appeal to overturn his murder conviction.

However, they allowed his appeal to commute the death sentence to a 40-year prison term, to be served from the date of arrest, which was Oct 9, 2019.

Harmindar, who chaired the panel, also ordered the 32-year-old to be given 12 strokes of the cane.

In August 2022, Sathiaraj was found guilty and sentenced to death by the High Court for killing the woman in a flat in Kampung Tasik Tambahan, Ampang, Selangor between 11.40am and 1pm on Sept 19, 2019.

Prior to that, Sathiaraj had pleaded guilty to raping and sodomising the woman, with the Ampang Sessions Court sentencing him to 13 years in jail and five lashes of the cane. He did not appeal against this court’s decision.

The Court of Appeal in February last year had dismissed his appeal against his murder conviction and death sentence.

DPP: His crimes were horrific

In today’s proceedings at the Federal Court, Sathiaraj's lawyer, Anwar Ezzad Zainal, requested the court to commute his client's death sentence to a 31-prison term, in line with the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023.

However, deputy public prosecutor How May Ling argued for the death penalty to be maintained, describing Sathiaraj’s acts as horrific, cruel, diabolical and a most exceptional case.

She detailed how Sathiaraj had pretended to ask for water from the elderly woman, then followed her into her home and locked the doors behind her.

She said Sathiaraj proceeded to stuff the woman's mouth with layers of cloth, wrapped her head tightly with clothing to suffocate her, tied her hands behind her back before raping and sodomising her without mercy, then left her to die.

- Bernama

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