Malaysian artist Fahmi Reza arrested over Powerpuff Girls artwork satirising royals
- The activist appeared to ridicule Malaysia’s monarchs with a satirical painting depicting Mojo Jojo, a villainous cartoon character, in traditional royal attire
- His work was a response to a sultan’s recent art purchase, which itself was a satirical work depicting the country’s lawmakers as monkeys, apes and frogs
Malaysian police on Thursday arrested well-known graphic artist and activist Fahmi Reza, after he appeared to ridicule the country’s monarchs with a satirical painting depicting Mojo Jojo, a villainous character in popular 1990s cartoon The Powerpuff Girls, in traditional royal attire.
Fahmi was detained at 4.20pm after being summoned to the Malaysian police headquarters for questioning, according to his lawyer Rajsurian Pillai.
“Within just 15 hours, the police had opened an investigation under the Sedition Act and the ‘hurt my feelings’ act, because of my satirical ape graphic that I uploaded last night,” Fahmi said on Wednesday in a statement, referring to Malaysia’s Communications and Multimedia Act 1998.
Under Section 233(a) of the act, it is an offence to produce and transmit anything that is “obscene, indecent, false, menacing or offensive in character” with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass another person, and is often used by the government to silence critics.
Fahmi Reza’s creation was a response to a sultan’s recent art purchase, which itself was a satirical work depicting lawmakers on both sides of Malaysia’s parliament as monkeys, apes and frogs.