Political cartoonist Zunar was detained by the police, 30-minutes after he posted bail for nine sedition charges at the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court.

Zunar, the nom de plume for Zulkiflee Anwar Ulhaque, was brought to the Dang Wangi district police headquarters where was investigated under the Section 223 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 over a post on his Facebook page.

Is is understood that the offending Facebook post involved a picture of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak in police lock-up clothes.

Zunar made bail at about 12.20 PM and was given half an hour to have lunch before he was taken away by the police. He was not handcuffed.

This morning, Zunar was charged for nine counts of sedition over nine tweets he made criticising the judiciary for upholding the conviction of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim.

Second phone confiscated

All nine charges will be tried together, while bail has been set at RM2,500 for each charge, for a total of RM22,500. If found guilty, he faces up to 43 years in jail. Judge Zanol Rashid Hussain has set May 20 for case mention.

According to his lawyer Michelle Yesudas, Zunar spent three hours under police detention before he was released.

Michelle also said Zunar’s handphone was confiscated this morning as well, when he was hauled up outside the court.

"It is ridiculous that they do this to him, just finished the case and they haul him in again. This is the second phone of his that they are confiscating," she added.

Human Rights Watch Deputy Asia Director Phil Robertson said charging Zunar with nine sedition charges and then re-arresting him to face a separate charge showed that the Malaysian government had "completely abandoned any pretence of respecting the basic right of freedom of expression".  

"Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and the IGP Khalid Abu Bakar have now declared it's open season to hunt down cartoonists and other humorists on social media, which shows both a disturbing lack of ​perspective and a new found tendency to equate repression with effective governance.  

"Day by day, Malaysians are losing more and more of their rights and democracy at the hands of an increasingly oppressive government," he said.

Zunar claims trial to nine charges of sedition

Hounding of Malaysia's 'seditious' cartoonist