Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah fixed the date after hearing submissions by Ahmad Saiful Islam’s lawyer Nasar Khan and deputy public prosecutor Izalina Abdullah.
The defence was led by Nicholas Kow and assisted by Emile Ezra Hussain.
Earlier, Nasar argued that in the case, police only took one urine sample of the accused and that the process of doing so was not in accordance with the rules.
“There were discrepancies between the testimony of prosecution witnesses regarding the urine sample. Besides that, there were errors in the urine sample bottle exhibit and a defect in the control chain of the sample. The sample had also been stored for too long before being tested,” he said.
In response, Izalina said the procedure of taking the appellant’s urine sample had been adequate and in accordance with the law.
“The issue of the urine sample having been tampered with was never raised by the defence to any prosecution witnesses and at no time did the appellant lodge a police report saying he was abused following the allegedly irregular sample collection process.
“Therefore, the magistrate was not wrong in his sentencing of the appellant and there are no factors for the High Court to change the magistrate’s findings. We request that the appellant’s appeal be rejected and the sentence upheld,” she said.
According to the charge, Ahmad was accused of using THC-type drugs at a hotel here at 2.05am on Jan 5, 2019.
On June 24 last year, magistrate Mohamad Aizat Abdul Rahim sentenced the accused to eight months’ jail after finding that the defence had failed to raise reasonable doubt in the prosecution’s case.
The court also ordered Ahmad to serve his jail term from June 24, last year and also to undergo two-year surveillance under the National Anti-Drug Agency after completing the sentence.
On July 2 last year, Ahmad filed an appeal against the sentence imposed by the magistrates’ court.
The court allowed his application to stay the execution of the sentence pending an appeal in the High Court.