Couple sentenced to 8 weeks jail for distributing seditious
publications
By Teo Xuanwei, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 10 June 2009 1847
hrs
SINGAPORE : A couple, found guilty last month of distributing
seditious or objectionable publications, has been sentenced to 8
weeks jail each.
50-year-old SingTel technical officer Ong Kian Cheong and his
46-year-old wife, UBS associate director Dorothy Chan Hien Leng,
had been found guilty on four charges each of sedition.
For two decades, the couple spread their faith by handing out
religious pamphlets, and then by dropping tracts into random HDB
letterboxes.
From around 1998, however, the couple, both Protestant Christians,
mailed them to addresses picked out from the telephone directory -
those of Muslims included.
They "clearly did so with the intent of convincing the Muslim
reader to convert to Christianity", a district court found.
For distributing and possessing seditious and objectionable
publications, husband and wife were sentenced to eight weeks' jail
each on Wednesday.
Such "intolerance, insensitivity and ignorance of delicate issues
concerning race and religion" in Singapore "clearly warranted" a
custodial sentence, said District Judge Roy Neighbour.
In the first full trial heard under the Sedition Act, the married
couple of 24 years was found guilty on May 28 of the charges.
In 2007, Mr Irwan Ariffin, 32, and Madam Farhati Ahmad, 36,
received an evangelistic comic-style booklet titled The Little
Bride through the mail while Mr Isa Raffee, 35, was sent Who Is
Allah?.
After a complaint to the police, an ambush was laid and the pair
was arrested on Jan 30 last year.
Found in their condominium in Bukit Timah were 439 copies of 11
seditious tracts.
During the 11-day trial, it emerged that the SingTel technical
officer and his wife, sent out about 20,000 publications in seven
years.
Produced by an American firm called Chick Publications, the
fundamentalist Protestant materials were "not only offensive for
religious content but also have a tendency to promote feelings of
ill-will or hostility between Muslims and Christians in Singapore",
said Judge Neighbour.
By distributing tracts with "callous, denigratory, offensive and
insensitive statements on religion with aspersions on race", the
pair had committed "serious" offences that "have the capacity to
undermine and erode the delicate fabric of racial and religious
harmony in Singapore".
Common sense, he said, dictated that religious fervor to spread the
faith, "in our society, must be constrained by sensitivity,
tolerance and mutual respect for another's faith and religious
beliefs".
Ong and Chan were expressionless when sentenced.
Their lawyer Selva K Naidu told the court that they had filed a
notice of appeal against the conviction last Friday. He was
awaiting instructions to proceed.
The pair faced two charges of distributing seditious publications
each, and one each of distributing an objectionable publication and
possession of seditious tracts.
They got four weeks' jail for each charge - two of them running
consecutively and the remaining to run concurrently.
They could have been fined up to $5,000 and/or jailed for up to
three years for each of the two charges.
The possession charge carries a maximum fine of $2,000 and/or jail
for up to 18 months. Distributing objectionable publications is
punishable with a fine not exceeding $5,000 and/or up to one year
behind bars. - CNA /ls
Very sure God have forgiven them=D
