"The Little Bride" & "Who is Allah?" -- 'Distributors' found GUILTY!!
Justice is served. The Christian couple who distributed the seditious booklets, "The Little Bride" & "Who is Allah?" are found guilty.
May they be slapped with the harshest punishment which put into consideration how lame their excuses were. It ought to count as a contempt of court, I tell you. The punishment (hopefully the maximum!) needs to reflect the severity of their crimes--and to give them ample time to read & realize how undesirable those two publications, "The Little Bride" & "Who is Allah?".A Christian couple have been found guilty in Singapore's first sedition trial for distributing seditious and undesirable publications as well as possession.
SingTel technical officer Ong Kian Cheong, 50, and his wife, UBS associate director Dorothy Chan Hien Leng, 46, were convicted on Thursday of four charges after an 11-day trial.
They were convicted of distributing seditious or an undesirable publication, The Little Bride, to two Muslims in October and March 2007; and sending out another seditious booklet, Who is Allah?, to another Muslim in December that year.
These two publications had the tendency to to promote feelings of ill-will and hostility between Christians and Muslims.
The Little Bride was deemed objectionable as it dealt with matters of religion in such a manner likely to cause feelings of enmity, hatred, ill-will or hostility between the two religious groups.
On the day of the Protestant couple's arrest on Jan 30 last year, police seized an assortment of items from their Maplewoods condominium, including 11 titles consisting of 439 copies of comic tracts which were seditious.
Their defence that they had no knowledge of the contents of the tracts they sent out was rejected by the court.
Judge Roy Neighbour also disbelieved Chan's defence that her husband had no knoweledge about her tract orders and purchases.
'I do not believe that the first accused (Ong) was merely the 'postman' in the distribution of the tracts having no knowledge of what was being distributed to members of the public,'' he added.
The case was adjourned to June 4 for Deputy Public Prosecutor Anandan Bala to address the court on sentence. Mitigation will be presented by their lawyer Selva K. Naidu then.
The couple can be fined up to $5,000 and/or jailed for up to three years on each of the two Sedition Act charges.
For distributing an objectionable publication, they can be fined up to $5,000 and/or jailed for up to 12 months.
The possesssion charge is punishable with a fine of up to $2,000 and/or up to 18 months in jail.
From Straits Times, "Couple guilty of sedition".A Christian couple has been found guilty of possessing and distributing seditious and undesirable publications to three Muslims.
In Singapore's first sedition trial, SingTel technical officer Ong Kian Cheong and his wife, UBS associate director Dorothy Chan Hien Leng, were convicted on four charges.
Three of the charges come under the Sedition Act and one under the Undesirable Publications Act.
In his judgement, District Judge Roy Neighbour said the two publications which the Protestant Christian couple had distributed in 2007 - called "The Little Bride" and "Who is Allah" - have a "strong seditious tendency".
The judge said he does not believe the couple's defence that they did not read the publications before sending them out, as the booklets were "ordered regularly and in bulk for over two decades".
Calling the couple "educated and intelligent people", the judge said they "would have known" that the publications "had a serious seditious tendency because the tracts are not only highly critical but denigrate Islam, the Roman Catholic Church and other religions".
He also disbelieved Chan's claim that she had "randomly" sent them out, "because in a multi-racial society like Singapore, a name can reveal a person's race and possibly religion".
Ong and Chan will appear in court again on June 4 for mitigation and sentencing.
The couple was arrested on January 30 last year after a police ambush party saw Ong dropping off a stack of envelopes at a mailbox outside SingTel Comcentre in Exeter Road that morning.
Twenty-two brown envelopes with the seditious publications were recovered from the mailbox. More items were found in Ong's car and his Maplewoods condominium home. Chan was arrested later in the day.
For each of the two Sedition Act charges, the couple can be fined up to S$5,000 and/or jailed for up to three years.
The possession charge can carry a fine of up to S$2,000 and/or a jail term of up to 18 months.
Distributing an objectionable publication is punishable with a fine up to S$5,000 and/or a jail term of up to 12 months.
From Channel NewsAsia, "Christian couple found guilty of distributing seditious materials to Muslims".
Update on 04/06: The sentence of between two and six months jail is considered 'stiff'?! The prosecution ought to compare that to the couple's maximum punishment of 3 years before defining such a 'stiff' sentence! Seditious publications ought to be taken seriously.The prosecution is seeking a stiff sentence of between two and six months jail for a Christian couple convicted of distributing and possessing seditious publications.
SingTel technical officer Ong Kian Cheong, 50, and his wife, UBS associate director Dorothy Chan Hien Leng, 46, were convicted last week of four charges after an 11-day trial.
They were found guilty by District Judge Roy Neighbour of two counts of sending out seditious comic tracts to two Muslims, one charge each of distributing an objectionable publication to another Muslim and having seditious materials at their Maplewoods condominium in Bukit Timah Road.
The offences occurred between March 2007 and Jan 30 last year.
The charges said The Little Bride and Who Is Allah?, published by American publisher Chick Publications, which they distributed, had the tendency to promote feelings of ill-will and hostility between Christians and Muslims here.
The couple's defence was that they were not aware of the contents of the 11 title publications. Neither did they know the publications had a seditious tendency because they were sold openly in Tecman in Bras Basah Complex.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Anandan Bala argued on Thursday that the couple's distribution of highly offensive and insulting comic tracts to Muslims and other non-Christians bore all the trademarks of grossly irresponsible and callous evangelisation. He said it had the potential to seriously undermine and threaten the multi-religious fabric of society.
So a strong and unequivocal message must be sent to deter not only the couple for the harm caused by their actions but also others from behaving in such a manner that could create disharmony and discord between different classes of people living here.
The couple's lawyer, Mr Selva K. Naidu, however, said his clients' only intention in dealing with the tracts was to spread the gospel. At no time had they thought they were doing anything unlawful when they distributed tracts or had them at home.
Judge Neighbour will sentence them next Wednesday.
From Straits Times, "Stiff sentence sought".
Update on 10/06: the verdict is out! The Christian couple was sentenced to eight weeks jail on Wednesday for distributing and possessing seditious publications. Like what I said previously (above), that 2-month jail is hardly what one will perceive as a 'stiff' punishment! A Protestant Christian couple was sentenced to eight weeks jail on Wednesday for distributing and possessing seditious publications.
In sentencing them, District Judge Roy Neighbour had considered an earlier call by the prosecution for a jail term to be handed out to Ong Kian Cheng, 50 and his wife Dorothy Chan Hien Leng, 46.
As the couple's offences affected the very foundation of Singapore society, public policy therefore dictated that the court apply the principle of deterrence in punishing them, the judge explained.
But the jail terms the couple received were at the lower end of what the prosecution had urged the court to impose. It had asked the court to keep the couple behind bars for between two and six months.
The couple was found guilty on four charges late last month in the first full trial under the Sedition Act to be heard here.
Judge Neighbour noted that Ong, a SingTel technical officer and Chan, an associate director with UBS, had said in their mitigation that neither of them had realised they were doing anything wrong.
Their only intention was to spread the Gospel by distributing Christian tracts - something they had been doing for more than 20 years.
But the Judge said the offences they were convicted of were 'serious ones'.
'They have the capacity to undermine and erode the delicate fabric of racial and religious harmony in Singapore,' said Judge Neighbour.
He added that as Singaporeans, the husband and wife cannot claim to be ignorant of the sensitivity of race and religion in Singapore's multi-racial and religious society.
'Common sense dictates that religious fervour to spread the faith, in our society, must be constrained by sensitivity, tolerance and mutual respect for another's faith and religious beliefs,' said the judge.
From Straits Times, "Couple jailed 8 weeks".
Related posts:
- A Christian Couple on sedition trial over comic strip booklets "The Little Bride" & "Who is Allah?": No ill will intended (yeah, sure...)
- A Christian Couple on sedition trial over comic strip booklets "The Little Bride" & "Who is Allah?"
1 comments:
If the publications were really so harmful, you'd expect that tired old bogeyman - race riots - by now
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