Lawyer Ramkarpal Singh told the Federal Court today that he is seeking to include the Dewan Rakyat Hansard that touches on the proposed death penalty amendments in the duo’s bid to review their conviction under Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act.

“We need to put forward to the court the government’s views on mandatory death sentences before we can proceed with their review applications,” he said.

The duo – Iranian national Hamidreza Farahmand Hassan and a Malaysian, Ranjit Singh Jit Singh – were found guilty of drug trafficking by the High Court and the convictions were upheld by the Federal Court.

In addition to making a bid to review their conviction on constitutional grounds, they are seeking to stay their execution pending the tabling of a bill to amend the mandatory death penalty.

However, deputy public prosecutor How May Ling told the court today the prosecution objected to their application to adjourn their review application hearing.

“They should have asked for this adjournment earlier,” she said.

Court of Appeal president Rohana Yusuf, who is heading the bench, said the review hearing had been postponed for several times over a three-year period, while waiting for the Federal Court to rule on their death penalty challenge.

She asked Ramkarpal if he was ready to make submissions on the review, to which the lawyer said he was not prepared to do so.

“I would need to withdraw the review application for now,” Ramkarpal said.

Ramkarpal later told reporters he would seek further instructions from both accused on whether to make a fresh review application including the Hansard.

The others on the bench were Vernon Ong, Abdul Rahman Sebli, Zabariah Mohd Yusof and Mary Lim.