Political cartoonist Zunar, who was arrested and detained for more than 24 hours, has vowed to take legal action against the police over his detention.

Zunar, whose real name is Zulkiflee Anwar Ulhaque, was given the run-around at seven police stations for the whole of last night and today over his latest comic books entitled Cartoon-o-phobia .

cartoon-o-phobia zunar press conference in malaysiakini 2 He was first sent to Brickfields police station, later Petaling Jaya, Bukit Puchong, Serdang, Sepang, and spent the night at the KLIA police lock-up before being driven to back Sepang this morning, where he was quizzed by the police.

He walked out of Sepang police station at 6.15pm today on police bail.

The legal suit is also to get the police to return the 66 copies of the comics which they confiscated from his office in Brickfields yesterday.

“I want my books back,” he said at a press conference in Malaysiakini office late this evening. The book is published by Kinibooks, the publishing arm of Malaysiakini .

Zunar added that the incident will not deter him from selling his books, which retails at RM25 a copy.

“It is not an offence to sell them. I will keep selling my books,” he said.

Zunar to 're-launch’ comic book

Zunar, who had missed his own book launch yesterday as he was in police custody, also said that he will be organising another function to ‘re-launch’ his book.

The hard-hitting, and often anti-establishment artist, also vowed to continue pressing on to put pen to paper.

“This won’t change my mind on cartooning. I will keep on drawing until I change from comic strips to prison stripes,” he said.

cartoon-o-phobia zunar press conference in malaysiakini latheefa koya Latheefa Koya, one of his lawyers, said she will be lodging complaints to the Bar Council and Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) over Zunar’s ordeal.

“This entire incident confirms our fears that the police are deliberately trying to sabotage his book launch,” she said.

VIDEO | 7.57 mins

One-day remand for Zunar, freed at 6pm