Lawyer Farhan Mauruf said the date was fixed after case management at Federal Court today. Ironically, the United Nations had voted only a day earlier to remove medical marijuana (or cannabis) from its list of most dangerous drugs.
“We are appealing against the two charges on which he was convicted and sentenced to death under Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act,” said Farhan. Lukman was given a reduced sentence of seven years and 10 strokes of the rotan by the Court of Appeal on his third charge.
Lead counsel Hisyam Teh said that previously the defence sent a representation to the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) before Lukman’s case was heard by the appeals court. “They (AGC) did not agree to our representation before the Court of Appeal”.
Hisyam said they had yet to decide if they wanted to send another representation to the AGC. We believe we have strong grounds and we will fight again before the Federal Court,” he said.
The appeals court had last year affirmed Lukman’s conviction on two of three charges on trafficking marijuana-related substances (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol).
In the judgment, then appeals court judge Zabariah Mohd Yusof said there was no evidence from the authorities to prove that marijuana had medicinal properties to treat patients with cancer.
She dismissed the defence lawyers’ contention that the drug was meant for medical purposes and thus the trafficking charges against Lukman should not come under the ambit of the DDA.
“There is neither exemption nor licence granted to the appellant (Lukman) to possess, manufacture, handle, process or offer for sale the drugs under the DDA or any other law.
“There is no supportive evidence from any medical bodies or the health ministry to confirm his contention that the drug has medicinal properties,” she said. The other judges in the panel were Yaacob Md Sam and Ravinthran Paramaguru.
Previously, former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad had said that there was a need to review Lukman’s drug charges. A petition was also launched, calling for his release.
Meanwhile, Home Minister Hamzah Zainudin said earlier today that the controls on cannabis in Malaysia would not be affected by the reclassification of the drug by the United Nations’ (UN) Office on Drugs and Crime.
The UN agency voted to remove cannabis and cannabis resin from the most tightly controlled category of narcotic drugs after the World Health Organization (WHO) made recommendations to make research into medical use of cannabis easier.
Hamzah said “cannabis and other cannabis-related items remain controlled under DDA and action can be taken against anyone who breaks the law”.
Farhan said Hamzah should be more “understanding” of the current changes in the UN’s policies and make the necessary changes here.
“We adopted the UN framework on drugs into our DDA back in the 1960s but it seems we are not changing in line with the development,” he added.