PUTRAJAYA (March 26): Two Filipinas, who had been on death row since 2013, were granted a reprieve when the Federal Court on Tuesday granted them a revision of their sentence, bringing it down to 30 years’ jail.

A three-member bench, led by Chief Justice Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat, substituted the death penalty punishments initially given to Aisa Bello Mensong, aged 44, and Eleonor Cantor Sadullo, aged 66, with 30 years’ jail instead.

Bello Mensong and Cantor Sadullo had been jointly convicted for trafficking 272.5g of heroin and 31.7g of morphine in 2008 and sentenced to death by the High Court in 2011.

The conviction and death sentences were initially upheld by the Court of Appeal and Federal Court in 2014.

The other two judges on the bench who sat with Tengku Maimun were Federal Court judges Datuk Rhodzhariah Bujang and Datuk Abu Bakar Jais.

The women are said to be the first two Philippine nationals to have their sentence relieved from the death penalty to 30 years’ jail following the apex court exercising its revisionary powers under Section 2 (revision of sentence) of the newly enacted law, Death Penalty and Imprisonment for Natural Life (Temporary Jurisdiction of the Federal Court) Act 2023, that empowers the Federal Court to review and substitute a death penalty sentence.

Since the amendment law passed last year, courts are given the discretion to mete out either 30 years or a lifetime imprisonment penalty to replace the death sentence for the offences of trafficking and murder.

The Philippine embassy appointed Amin Othman as counsel to represent them, while Deputy Public Prosecutor Mohd Khusairy Ibrahim appeared for the prosecution.

Amin, who confirmed the reduction in the sentence with The Edge, said the duo are expected to be released possibly in three to four years’ time, depending on the remission order by the Prisons Department for good behaviour.