A former bank manager is challenging the whipping sentence imposed on him for criminal breach of trust which he claimed was unconstitutional as it discriminated the male gender.

Azlan Alias, 49, who was sentenced to three years imprisonment and given three strokes of the rotan by the Kota Bharu magistrate's court six years ago, wants the Appellate Court to review his case on that ground.

The three-man Court of Appeal comprising Justice Suriyadi Halim Omar, Hasan Lah and Ahmad Maarop fixed May 10 for hearing of the review before another panel.

The case was adjourned to that date, following the recusal by Ahmad who was in the Court of Appeal panel that had dismissed Azlan's appeal against his conviction and jail term on June 26, last year.

The grounds for review was set out in the affidavit of Azlan's counsel Amer Hamzah Arshad, which was attached together with the notice of motion for review.

The grounds cited was that the execution of whipping violated Article 8 (2) of the Federal Constitution which protected citizens from being discriminated in any law on grounds of gender.

Azlan said he was entitled to the rights under the law, similarly given to women unless the constitution stated otherwise.

Section 289 of the Criminal Procedure Code prohibits whipping sentence from being executed on women.

Azlan wants the court to set aside the whipping sentence because he claimed that Section 289 was in conflict with Article 8 (2), adding that the court was duty-bound to correct the injustice.

The former manager of Bank Pertanian Malaysia's Machang branch was found guilty and sentenced to imprisonment and whipping for committing criminal breach of trust of RM304,000 at the bank between July 6, 1997 and July 9, 1997.

He was unsuccessful in his appeals at both the Kota Bharu High Court and the Court of Appeal.

Deputy public prosecutor Tengku Amir Zaki Tengku Abdul Rahman appeared for the prosecution.

- Bernama