Graphic designer Fahmi Reza has been sentenced to a month’s jail and fined RM30,000 by the Sessions Court in Ipoh for a caricature depicting Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak as a clown.

Fahmi was charged in June last year, under Section 233(1)(a) of the Communications and Multimedia Act (CMA), for posting the caricature along with the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) logo.

His lawyer Syahredzan Johan told Malaysiakini they will appeal the decision, and that a stay of execution of the sentence was granted with a bond of RM10,000.

Syahredzan said judge Norashima Khalid did not give the grounds for his decision, except that the defence had failed to establish reasonable doubt in the prosecution's case.

Fahmi had previously filed a legal challenge against the constitutionality of the CMA in his bid to strike out the charge against him.

Last January, the High Court in Kuala Lumpur allowed Fahmi's application, but the Federal Court later set aside the ruling on the grounds that the case was not properly brought before it, and should, therefore, be remitted back to the Sessions Court.