Gerakan will mount a fresh legal challenge against Kelantan’s hudud, the party’s hudud legal team coordinator Andy Yong said today.

This follows the Federal Court’s dismissal today of Gerakan’s leave application to pose four constitutional questions to the apex court in relation to the state's hudud.

“Given the high constitutional importance of this matter and after consulting the leadership of the party as well as our legal consultants, we have decided to file a fresh challenge that conforms with the requirements laid down by the Federal Court today,” Yong said in a statement.

On May 8, three Gerakan members had filed a notice of motion to seek leave (permission) from the Federal Court to challenge the constitutionality of the Kelantan Syariah Criminal Code 11 1993 (Amendment 2015) Enactment.

However, Federal Court judge Zaharah Ibrahim dismissed the application this morning on grounds that the three applicants had failed to show how they are affected by the enactment and that they were indeed Muslims.

The trio were Tuan Mat Tuan Wil, Soh Hoon Lee and Chung Mon Sie, who were represented by former Federal Court judge Gopal Sri Ram with Harpal Singh and Yong.

The apex court ruled that in the Gerakan applicants’ affidavit to support the motion, none of them declared they were all Muslims although the first applicant was a Muslim.

When asked whether the applicants in the fresh application would be Muslims, Yong said it would be likely as that was the technical ground given by the Federal Court.

Private member's bill submitted

The amendment to Kelantan’s hudud was made on March 19, and was gazetted on Aug 24.

However, the implementation of hudud hinges on the passage of a private member’s bill submitted by PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang in Parliament to amend the Syariah Criminal Jurisdiction Act 1965.

The private members’ bill is the subject of a separate legal challenge mounted by Mansoor Saat, Azira Aziz, Hasbeemaputra Abu Bakar and Hazwany Jamaluddin, which will be decided by the Kuala Lumpur High Court on Nov 11.