Malay beheads colleague in 'lottery winning ceremony', survives death
A Malaysian man who beheaded a colleague he hoped would win the lottery in a black magic ritual has had his death sentence commuted.
Francis a/l Anthonysamy (son of Francis a/l Anthonysamy) was sentenced to death in 1996 for the murder of Bangladeshi national Ali Ahammed Mohammed Ullah. The victim, a co-worker at the Kim Swee Lung oil palm plantation in Kuala Lumpur, had the misfortune to unwittingly become complicit in Francis's twisted and deadly gambling strategy.
Prior to the murder, Francis consulted a Malaysian shaman, or witch doctor, a "bomoh," who advised him that he must bury a human head to have any chance of winning the Malaysian lottery.
According to court documents, Francis knocked Ali Ahmed unconscious with a cane stick and then beheaded him. He then buried the victim's head in an oil palm plantation.
Needless to say, Francis' move did not have the desired effect and he was unsuccessful.
Sentenced to life imprisonment
Francis, 52, was arrested a week after the murder on August 26, 1994 and has been incarcerated ever since. On Thursday, his sentence was commuted to 35 years in prison, meaning he will be released in more than five years.
Francis is the beneficiary of a new law that will allow all 1,020 of Malaysia's current death row inmates to petition for a review of their respective sentences.
Francis' attorney argued that while his client's crimes were shocking, they were not an act of terrorism and only affected one victim.
But deputy public prosecutor How May Ling objected, describing the crime as "cruel" and "brutal".
"This crime was premeditated and the motive was to sacrifice innocent lives to obtain human skulls in order to obtain [lottery numbers]," Howe said, as reported and translated by the New Straits Times.
Devil Contract
Francis isn't the only one willing to commit horrific crimes to gain a superstitious advantage in the lottery. Two sisters who were stabbed to death by a stranger in a park in northeast London in June 2021 were "sacrificed" as part of a nefarious deal to win the lottery, British prosecutors say.
The perpetrator, Danyal Hussein, who was 19 at the time, made a pact with the devil, agreeing to sacrifice women in exchange for financial gain, according to a note found in his home. He bought three lottery tickets before the murder.
In October 2021, he was sentenced to 35 years in prison.
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Source: www.casino.org
