PUTRAJAYA, July 31 (Bernama) -- The Federal Court today upheld the death sentence imposed on former army pathologist Colonel R. Kunaseegaran for the murder of Deputy Public Prosecutor Datuk Kevin Morais after dismissing his application to review the apex court's earlier decision affirming his conviction and sentence.
A three-member bench comprising Chief Judge of Malaya Datuk Seri Hashim Hamzah and Federal Court judges Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah and Datuk Azimah Omar unanimously ruled that Kunaseegaran had failed to satisfy the legal threshold for a review under Rule 137 of the Rules of the Federal Court 1995.
Delivering the unanimous decision, Justice Hashim said Kunaseegaran, 63, had withdrawn his appeal against sentence during the earlier Federal Court proceedings, leaving no issue for the court to determine in relation to the sentence.
The court also dismissed Kunaseegaran's contention that the earlier Federal Court panel had considered only issues relating to motive and defective charges.
Justice Hashim said the notes of proceedings clearly showed that the previous panel had also examined other issues, including the circumstantial evidence, the charges, the testimony of a prosecution witness, and Kunaseegaran's defence.
"It is therefore incorrect to claim that those issues were not considered by the previous panel," he said.
The court further held that the absence of the full written grounds of judgment could not, by itself, justify a review of the earlier decision, adding that there had been no violation of Articles 5 and 8 of the Federal Constitution.
Earlier, Kunaseegaran’s lawyer, Datuk Malik Imtiaz Sarwar, argued that his client had been denied a fair hearing because not all six grounds of appeal had been adequately addressed by both the Court of Appeal and the Federal Court.
He also submitted that Kunaseegaran's constitutional rights under Articles 5 and 8 of the Federal Constitution had been infringed.
However, Deputy Public Prosecutor Datuk Seri Saiful Edris Zainuddin argued that the previous Federal Court panel had fully considered all the facts, legal issues, and submissions advanced by both parties, and that there had been no miscarriage of justice warranting a review.
He also submitted that the absence of the full written grounds of judgment did not amount to a denial of natural justice.
Kunaseegaran was among six men convicted and sentenced to death by the High Court on July 10, 2020, for the murder of Morais, who disappeared on Sept 4, 2015. His body was later discovered inside a cement-filled oil drum in Subang Jaya.
The offence was committed between 7 am and 8 pm on Sept 4, 2015, at locations along Jalan Dutamas Raya, Sentul, and No. 1, Jalan USJ 1/6D, Subang Jaya.
The Court of Appeal upheld the convictions on March 14, 2024.
On July 1, 2025, the Federal Court affirmed Kunaseegaran's conviction and death sentence after he withdrew his appeal against sentence.
In the same decision, the apex court commuted the death sentences imposed on S. Nimalan, 33, and S. Ravi Chandran, 55, to terms of imprisonment, while acquitting the remaining three accused — R. Dinishwaran, 34, A.K. Thinesh Kumar, 33, and M. Vishwanath, 36.
At today's proceedings, Kunaseegaran was also represented by lawyers Datuk N. Sivananthan, A. Surendra Ananth, Jasmine Cheong, and Abby Si Xinyi, while deputy public prosecutors Zaki Asyraf Zubir, Norshazwani Ishak, Mohamad Arif Aizuddin Masrom, and Jasmee Hameeza Jaafar appeared for the prosecution.
-- BERNAMA