Singapore court finds Christian couple guilty of sedition

May 28, 2009, 9:52 GMT

   Singapore - A Singapore court Thursday has found a Christian couple guilty for distributing seditious and objectionable publications to Muslims, media reports said.

   Between March and December 2007, Ong Kian Cheong, 50, and his wife, Dorothy Chan Hien Leng, 46, had distributed two booklets by US publisher and comic author Jack Chick, which according to the judge could spark ill-will or hostility between Christians and Muslims.

   The case was adjourned to June 4, when the public prosecutor and the couple's lawyer were expected to give their final speeches, the online edition of the Straits Times newspaper reported.

   The couple, which had also been charged with possessing seditious material, could be fined or jailed for several years.

   The Christians mailed Jack Chick's controversial booklets titled The Little Bride and Who is Allah? to Muslims. Both publications show a tendency to condemn Islam.

   Muslims who received the publications reported to the police.

   When the protestants were arrested in January last year, police seized more than 400 copies of seditious comics in their home, the report said.

   The official website for Chick's publications has been blocked by Singapore's Media Development Authority.