The Federal Court today has commuted the death sentence of a former lorry driver who murdered an 85-year-old woman after raping and sodomising her in 2019, to 40 years in prison.

A three-judge panel consisting of judges Harmindar Singh Dhaliwal, Nordin Hassan and Abu Bakar Jais, dismissed K Sathiaraj's appeal to overturn his murder conviction.

However, they allowed his appeal to commute the death sentence to a 40-year prison term, to be served from the...