Singapore activist jailed for giving street speech

Opposition activist Dr Chee Soon Juan was jailed for seven days yesterday after refusing to pay a S$1,400 (HK$6,380) fine for giving an illegal street speech.

His court appearance was seen as a test case for the limits of free speech in the city-state.

Chee, the Democratic Party's secretary-general, will be released on February 9, when he is due to face a similar charge over a speech given in the central business district on January 5.

Chee's heavily pregnant wife said that if he was fined again, he would again refuse to pay - meaning he could be behind bars when their first child is born in about three weeks.

'He may not be around for the arrival of our first baby. But when the baby is old enough, he or she will be proud of what he has done today,' Huang Chih Mei, 36, said.

Chee's lawyer, Joshua Jeyaretnam, argued that Chee, also 36, had not applied for a police permit to speak on December 29 as required under the Public Entertainments Act, because the law infringed his constitutional rights to free speech, association and assembly.

Mr Jeyaretnam appealed to District Judge See Kee Oon to declare Chee's prosecution void and urged him to take steps to bring the 1959 act into line with Singapore's 1963 constitution.

Judge See, however, said he had no authority to amend the law and there had been legal precedent to show it was constitutional. Deputy Public Prosecutor Bala Reddy argued that the police licensing system 'complemented' rather than conflicted with the constitution, pointing to a clause that entitled the Government to limit citizens' rights to free speech on grounds of national security.

Mr Jeyaretnam appealed to the judge to fine Chee, a US-trained neuropsychologist, less than S$2,000. A S$2,000 fine would have prevented him from standing for Parliament for five years. The charge he faced carried a maximum fine of S$5,000.

In a statement issued by party colleagues, Chee said: 'I feel that I have done absolutely no wrong by speaking to my fellow Singaporeans in a peaceful, public gathering.'