Zunar, whose real name is Zulkiflee Anwar Alhaque, said this was the fifth mobile phone that has been seized by police in a “flurry of investigations” since 2015 over his artwork.
Speaking to FMT after he was questioned for two hours, he said he invoked Section 112 of the Criminal Procedure Code in refusing to answer questions posed to him.
Under the provision, a person may refuse to answer a question that would have a tendency to expose him to a criminal charge or penalty.
Zunar said he was being investigated after three police reports against him were lodged in Alor Setar, Pendang and Padang Terap.
“They took my phone to carry out forensic analysis on my activities on the internet with regard to the cartoon I drew,” he said.
Zunar is being probed under Section 505(c) of the Penal Code for making statements conducive to public mischief with intent to incite the community to cause them to commit an offence against any other communities, and also under Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 for abuse of network services.
On Jan 25, menteri besar Muhammad Sanusi’s senior special assistant Nurul Amin Hamid lodged a police report against Zunar, claiming the cartoon had slandered his boss over the state government’s move to cancel this year’s Thaipusam holiday. He had said it was unfair and uncalled for.
The caricature depicts a larger-than-life Sanusi with a butcher’s knife chopping a round table in the middle, shocking the people of various races around it. The words “Tiada cuti Thaipusam” is written on the side of the knife, accompanied by a blurb: “Kedahans lived peacefully before he (Sanusi) came.”
Commenting on the police reports lodged by the MB’s aide, Zunar said the MB could have used the vast state apparatus to rebut his work.
“He does not have the intellectual mind to debate with me or rebut my cartoons in an official statement. You’re an MB in power, you can issue statements, but instead, you are hiding behind the police,” he said.
Earlier this year, Sanusi announced that there would be no public holiday for Thaipusam this year, given the movement control order.
This sparked a row among Indian political leaders from both sides of the political divide as well as rights groups who said it was an ignorant move that could affect the harmony among races enjoyed by the country all this while.