PUTRAJAYA, Feb 20 — The Federal Court today reportedly upheld the 35-year prison sentence imposed on a former security guard for murdering his lover after she told him she intended to marry another man.

According to a report in Free Malaysia Today, a three-member bench chaired by Chief Justice Tun Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh ruled that the conviction and sentence were sound and dismissed M Gunasegaran’s appeal.

“There was no serious error committed by the two lower courts. The defence of grave and sudden provocation is not available to the appellant,” he was quoted as saying.

Justices Collin Lawrence Sequerah and Azimah Omar were also on the panel.

The court deferred the 15 strokes of the rotan imposed on Gunasegaran pending a separate Federal Court decision on the constitutionality of whipping, after lawyers in another case challenged the punishment under Articles 5 and 8 of the Federal Constitution.

Two years ago, the Court of Appeal commuted Gunasegaran’s death sentence to 35 years’ imprisonment, effective from his arrest on February 5, 2018, and ordered that he be whipped 15 times.

The offence took place at about 1.50pm on February 5, 2018, in a car parked at the Giant supermarket in Kota Damansara, where he fatally stabbed clerk D Tharani before driving to the Damansara police station to surrender.

The prosecution said the act was premeditated, citing evidence that he had purchased a knife and towel beforehand and inflicted two stab wounds to the victim’s neck, while the defence argued he lost control after she informed him of her plan to marry someone else.

 Malay Mail – Malaysia