Ong J:

In a trial before Ismail Khan J, with the aid of assessors, the first three appellants were convicted under s. 3(1) of the Kidnapping Act, 1961, on a charge that they, in furtherance of a common intention to abduct one Ng Chee Theng, a boy of nine, for ransom of $50,000, did abduct this boy to a semijungle at the 4th mile Gemas-Tampin Road. The fourth appellant was convicted on a charge of abetting the others in the commission of the offence. They were all sentenced to imprisonment for life, which is mandatory as the only alternative to a sentence of death. They all appealed against both conviction and sentence, but the latter is, of course, not appealable. We dismissed the appeal of all the appellants and intimated that we would give our reasons later.

The facts were as follows. The boy is the son of a well-to-do merchant of Gemas. In the evening of 21 December 1963, he went out with an elder brother, twelve years old, for drinks at an ice-stall. The boys were well acquainted with the fourth appellant and he invited them to a treat of "bubohkachang". They were afterwards joined by another friend. As a pretext to remove the elder brother and friend, the fourth appel