Activist Fahmi Reza, released this morning after being detained yesterday for selling T-shirts featuring a clown-faced Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, said he will not be deterred from fighting corruption.

"If you think your actions will scare me and break my determination to fight corruption by authorities using art as a weapon, then you are wrong," wrote a defiant Fahmi on Facebook today.

He posted news of his release at 5am this morning.

"You can arrest me, arrest my friends, confiscate my stuff, detain me, interrogate me, charge me, put me on trial, take away my rights and try to shut me up, but you can't keep me down.

"No matter how hard you try to push me down, I will always rise back up," wrote Fahmi.

Prior to his arrest, he was promoting his #?KitaSemuaPenghasut (We are all guilty of sedition) T-shirts at the KL Alternative Bookfest (KLAB) at Publika in Kuala Lumpur.

According to Institut Rakyat executive director Yin Shao Loong, three others were also detained and taken to Sentul district police headquarters under the Sedition Act 1948.

They were event organiser Pang Khee Teik, community activist Lew Pik-Svonn and comic book artist Arif Rafhan Othman.

Car confiscated

According to Lew in a separate posting, the three were also released along with Fahmi at 3am.

She gave an account of their ordeal on Facebook, and related how she, Pang and an "innocent bystander" were arrested as she was loading up her car with suitcases of merchandise after the event.

She said after their release on bail, she found her car has been confiscated.

"The confiscation of my car is a blatant abuse of power as it has nothing to do with this case.

"Why weren't the suitcases enough? Would the police confiscate an office or a house simply because it stored items police confiscated?" she asked, adding the vehicle is being held at the Sentul police station.

"My car, phone and many other items have all been taken from me but my spirit is not broken.

"I stand by our right to dissent and express ourselves freely. The Sedition Act is a draconian law that aims to muzzle dissenters and has no place in a democratic society," wrote Lew.

'A hundred will rise'

Fahmi meanwhile expressed defiance, saying the authorities could confiscate as many T-shirts as they pleased, but more could be printed, and more drawings made.

"There comes a time when we are forced to rid ourselves of fear and rise up against oppression, as it can inspire courage in others, to likewise get up and fight," he said.

"If one 'penghasut' falls, a hundred will rise," he said, adding he will be back in action at Publika today.