Originally posted by january:A PROTESTANT Christian couple were 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 were 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.
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