PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal today commuted the death sentence of a former sailor to 40 years in prison for killing a former schoolteacher during a robbery in 2017.
The three-man panel of judges – comprising Justices Hadhariah Syed Ismail, Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim and SM Komathy Suppiah – also ordered Zarmayade Abdullah, 46, to be given 12 strokes of the cane.
In delivering the court’s decision, Hadhariah dismissed Zarmayade’s appeal and upheld his conviction.
However, she set aside the death sentence and replaced it with 40 years in prison, ordering Zarmayade to serve his sentence from the date of his arrest on April 16, 2017.
Zarmayade, who was in the Royal Malaysian Navy from 1995 to 1997, was accused of murdering Rokiah Mamat, 61, at a house in Kampung Mengkebang, Jalan Batu Lada, Kuala Krai, Kelantan.
The crime took place between 11am and 3pm on April 12, 2017. Rokiah was found dead by her child upon returning home in the afternoon.
On Dec 22, 2020, the High Court found Zarmayade guilty of Rokiah’s murder and sentenced him to death.