The Supreme Court sentenced one of three co-accused for kidnapping (3 years) and unrelated arson (2 years, with 1 year cumulative), yielding a total effective sentence of 4 years with a non-parole period of 2 years and 4 months, making the accused immediately eligible for parole given 868 days of pre-sentence detention. The Court found that the accused's involvement in the kidnapping was borne of panic, was spontaneous, lacked the sinister motive or premeditation of his co-accused, and was of much shorter duration, warranting a significantly lower sentence. The Court also took into account as mitigating factors the extra-curial punishment of having murder and body-burning charges hanging over the accused for over two-and-a-half years before acquittal, harsh conditions in restrictive custody, and the loss of opportunity for partial concurrency with a prior seven-month sentence served on remand.
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