The police today bombarded political cartoonist Zunar with a barrage of questions, and the one he found to be most bizarre was regarding impersonating a judge.

"They asked me around 30 questions (at the Dang Wangi police headquarters).

"And the most ridiculous question was if I wore a judge's attire and acted like a judge outside the Palace of Justice," he told Malaysiakini.

During the Federal Court hearing of Anwar Ibrahim's appeal against his sodomy conviction, some of the opposition leader's supporters held a quiz outside the building in Putrajaya.

Zunar, whose real name is Zulkiflee Anwar Haque, was the "judge" and sported a mop for a wig, wore a black robe and brandished a gavel as well.

Among the questions posed to the "contestants" was the size and brand of sodomy complainant Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan's underwear, which was tendered as evidence during the trial.

Zunar is being probed under Section 8(2) of the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984, Section 4(1)(c) of the Sedition Act 1948, and Section 500 of the Penal Code after two separate police reports were made against him.

The investigation was launched after two of his books were confiscated during the hearing at the Federal Court.

'Who is this Anwar?'

The cartoonist described the probe as the "highest level of harassment" that he has faced so far.

However, Zunar remained unfazed and vowed to continue publishing his work.

"I would like to give a message to the government that all these harassments would not stop me from exposing the corruption through cartoons," he said.

Meanwhile, Zunar's lawyer Latheefa Koya told Malaysiakini that her client was also quizzed on the characters featured in his books.

One question, which she termed as a "waste of time", was "who is this Anwar that you meant in your books?"

Apart from this, the police have also requested for the list of those who purchased Zunar's books via his website.

KAMLES KUMAR is a trainee reporter at Malaysiakini.


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