Sosilawati murder case: Appeals Court sets May 18 for hearing

The Court of Appeal here today set May 18 to hear the appeals of a former lawyer and his employees who were convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of cosmetics millionaire Datuk Sosilawati Lawiya and her three aides, about four years ago.

A three-member panel chaired by Justice Datuk Aziah Ali fixed five days beginning May 18, for the hearing of the appeal.

She also ordered the prosecution and defence to submit their respective written and summary submissions to the secretaries of the respective judges by April 27 to enable them (the judges) to read the submissions.

The appeal came up for mention today before the panel comprising Aziah and justices Datuk Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat and Datuk Seri Zakaria Sam.

Meanwhile, the court allowed counsel Rosal Azimin Ahmad's application to discharge himself from representing the fourth appellant, R. Kathavarayan.

He (Rosal Azimin) told the court that he was appointed by the court to represent Kathavarayan but was informed yesterday that Kathavarayan had engaged his own counsel, Hisyam Teh Poh Teik, to represent him.

Hisyam, who was also present in the court proceedings today, confirmed he was retained by Kathavarayan on Friday.

Aziah also fixed fixed March 9 to hear Kathavarayan's application to include additional grounds in his petition of appeal and also directed his counsel, Hisyam to file his application by March 4.

On May 23, 2013, N. Pathmanabhan, 45, and farmhands T. Thilaiyalagan, 23, R. Matan, 24, and Kathavarayan, 35, were found guilty and sentenced to death for the murder of Sosilawati, 47, her driver, Kamaruddin Shamsuddin, 44, bank officer Noorhisham Mohamad, 38, and lawyer Ahmad Kamil Abdul Karim, 32.

They were found guilty by the High Court in Shah Alam of committing the offence at Lot 2001, Jalan Tanjong Layang, Tanjung Sepat in Banting between 8.30pm and 9.45pm on Aug 30, 2010.

In his judgement, High Court Judge Datuk Akhtar Tahir concluded that land matters figured as the key motive in the murder of Sosilawati for the reason of Pathmanabhan's inability to honour the cheque issued to Sosilawati.

He had said, based on the information given, the police discovered a burnt patch at the back of the farm and, upon digging the burnt spot, the police unearthed bones whereby some of them (bones) were later confirmed by an expert to be human bones that were charred, showing they had been burnt at very high temperature.

Lawyer Manjeet Singh Dhillon represented Pathmanabhan while Gurbachan Singh appeared for Thilaiyalagan. Amer Hamzah Arshad was counsel for Matan.

Appearing for the prosecution was a team of prosecutors led by Deputy Public Prosecutor Saiful Edris Zainuddin.