PUTRAJAYA, April 24 — A jobless man escaped the gallows after the Federal Court commuted the death sentence imposed on him to a 30-year jail sentence for killing a man nine years ago.

The three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat, Court of Appeal President Tan Sri Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim and Federal Court judge Datuk Sri Hasnah Mohammed Hashim ordered B. Rames to be given 12 strokes of the rotan.

Justice Tengku Maimun also ordered the man to serve the sentence from the date of his arrest on June 12, 2016.

This was after deputy public prosecutor Datin Asmah Musa informed the court that based on the facts and circumstances of the case, the prosecution agreed for the death sentence imposed on Rames to be commuted to prison term.

Rames, 48, was sentenced to death by the Johor Baru High Court on October 29, 2018, after he was found guilty of killing Mohd Harris Saravanan Abdullah, 36, between 4pm on March 9, 2015, and 10am the next day.

Rames committed the offence with four other persons who are still at large at an oil palm plantation in Kampung Melayu Seelong Selatan, Jalan Seelong-Ulu Tiram, Senai, Kulaijaya district, Johor.

On November 9, 2022, the Court of Appeal dismissed his appeal and upheld his conviction and death sentence.

The facts of the case revealed that the deceased and his brother-in-law went to the oil palm plantation to take drug supplies, and the deceased’s brother-in-law saw Rames arguing with the deceased and also saw him (Rames) taking a machete and slashing the deceased on his stomach and hand.

Another prosecution witness — a drug addict who was at the scene — saw Rames strangle the deceased with a string and then wrap his body and his personal belongings in a canvas and air mattress before putting it in a wheelbarrow.

Rames then instructed four persons to push the wheelbarrow out of the scene of the crime.

In today’s proceeding, Rames was represented by lawyer Bernard George. — Bernama