The police have obtained a one-day remand extension order from the Sepang Magistrates’ Court to keep political cartoonist Zunar in custody for further questioning.

This is despite the fact that Zunar was unrepresented by his legal team at the remand hearing this morning, and that the magistrate had even been informed that were on their way to the courthouse.

NONE According to his lawyer, Latheefa Koya, Zunar (real name Zulkiflee Anwar Ulhaque, right ) is in the custody of Sepang district police headquarters.

When contacted by Malaysiakini , she also revealed that the police have yet to take Zunar's statements despite  being arrested at his office in Brickfields Kuala Lumpur at 4pm yesterday.

"They are also flip-flopping on whether to investigate him under the Sedition Act or the Printing Presses and Publications Act.

zunar new comic cartoon-o-phobia "This is all done in complete bad faith," she said.

Latheefa also lamented that the remand hearing was held without the presence of lawyers.

"The magistrate has clearly breached Article 5 of the federal constitution which guarantees the right to legal representation," said Zunar's wife Fazlina Rosley in an SMS message.

‘Ploy to disrupt the launch'

Zunar was scheduled to launch his latest cartoon compilation 'Cartoon-o-phobia' yesterday.

Despite his arrest, the launch at Kuala Lumpur Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall went on with Fazlina representing him.

pkr weekly pc 120707 latheefa Latheefa ( left ) also said that the run-around by the police was nothing more than a ploy to disrupt Zunar's comic book launch yesterday.

“They held him unlawfully. The entire idea was to disrupt the launch since the police themselves have no idea which part is seditious.

“We were ready to cooperate. If he could exercise his rights, the entire process would take less than 30 minutes. The fact that Zunar has not given his statement, what else are the police expecting from him?

“Are they going to beat some kind of ‘confession’ from him?” asked Latheefa.

Yesterday, police had also seized 66 copies of Cartoon-o-phobia - published by Kinibooks, the publishing arm of Malaysiakini - as well as a caricature of Prime Minister Najib Razak and his wife Rosmah Mansor.

UPDATE: Zunar was released on bail at about 6pm today.