Lawyers for the four Kelantanese who lost their appeal in the Federal Court yesterday on questions of constitutional religious freedom are studying the possibility of filing for a review of the decision.

The four made headlines in the late 1990s when they renounced Islam through a statutory declaration. They finished serving between two and three years imprisonment in late 2002 for contempt of court.

The four - Mohamed Ya and his wife Kamariah Ali, Daud Mamat and Mad Yaacob Ismail - lost their appeal in Putrajaya yesterday.

Kamariah stood on behalf of her husband who died last October, 10 months after their release from the Pengkalan Chepa state prison.

Contacted today, one of the lawyers Haris Mohamed Ibrahim said they were still studying the judgment for all possibilities of further action.

"We are presently studying the judgment with a view of reviewing the Federal Court decision. I'm afraid I can't put a time frame to it but we don't want to take too long to do this," he said.

The surviving trio had left for their remote village in Terengganu today and could not be reached for comments.

Constitutional right

According to Haris, they were disappointed after having waited so long for the decision.

"They are definitely upset. At the same time, they are determined to pursue their constitutional right to practice the faith of their choice," he said.

"We will file for a review the soonest possible."

Yesterday, deputy registrar Azimah Omar delivered the 26-page judgement on the appeal by the four to declare that they had the absolute right and freedom under the country's supreme law to practice the religion of their choice.

In this landmark case, the appellants had sought the Federal Court to consider if an adult Muslim is entitled to renounce Islam under Article 11 of the Federal Constitution guaranteeing freedom of religion to every citizen.

The court was also asked to declare void any restrictive law or one that fettered the right of an adult Muslim to renounce Islam. The appellants also wanted the court to rule on the consistency between Kelantan laws and provisions of the Federal Constitution.

The five-member Bench, presided by Chief Justice Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim, had unanimously ruled that the Syariah Court has jurisdiction over the four as they had committed the religious offences before their declared apostasy.