Home Ministry ordered to return books seized from cartoonist Zunar

The Home Ministry has been ordered to return the books seized from cartoonist Zunar or Zulkiflee Anwar Ulhaque.

This is following the decision by the Federal Court which maintained the Court of Appeal's decision to lift the ban on two cartoon books "1Funny Malaysia" and "Perak Darul Kartun", as reported by Malaysiakini.

The Federal Court also ordered the government to revoke the ban after dismissing the ministry's appeal for it to be revoked.

The decision was made unanimously by a five-panel judge chaired by Court of Appeal judge Tan Sri Md Raus Sharif.

The panel made the decision after hearing the submission by senior federal counsel, Shamsul Bol Hassan who represented the Home Ministry.

"There is no merit in this appeal. We agree with the Court of Appeal so the appeal is dismissed," said Md Rauf.

Zunar was represented by lawyer K. Shanmuga. The cartoonist, however, did not attend the hearing as he was overseas.

The Home Ministry had earlier banned the books by Zunar on May 25, 2010 under Section 7 of the Printing Presses Publications Act 1984 for disturbing public order.