GEORGE TOWN: Cartoonist Zunar has been released after being remanded today to enable police to investigate him for alleged sedition and with an intention to insult.
Northeast police district police chief Assistant Commissioner Mior Farid Alathrash Wahid said Zunar, whose real name is Zulkiflee Anwar Haque, had spent one night in the lock-up after he was detained yesterday.
He said Zunar was released at about 7pm after the investigating team were done taking the cartoonist’s statement.
Zunar is being investigated under section 4(1)(c) under the Sedition Act as well as under Section 504 of the Penal Code with intentional insult to provoke a breach of the peace.
Yesterday, police had called Zunar in to have his statement recorded at the district police headquarters before his arrest in the evening. Zunar was accompanied by his lawyer, R.S.N. Rayer.
Zunar turned himself in for questioning following Friday’s disturbance at an exhibition featuring his caricatures at Komtar here.
The exhibition, which featured caricatures of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak among others, was stormed by 50 enraged Penang Umno Youth members who demanded that the show be shut down on grounds that it was seditious.