SingTel technical officer Ong Kian Cheong, 50, and UBS associate director Dorothy Chan Hien Leng, 46, have appealed against the conviction and are out on $15,000 bail each.

District Judge Roy Neighbour decided on a jail term, even though a fine was allowed for under the law, as the couple's offences affected the very foundation of Singapore society, which is multi-religious and multiracial.

The judge said the sentence in this case was necessary to deter others from committing similar offences.

Decked out smartly in executive wear, husband and wife showed no emotion when their sentences were read out to them.

They were convicted of four charges two weeks ago, which included three for mailing seditious or objectionable evangelical Christian tracts to three Muslim civil servants between March and December 2007.

Another charge was for keeping about 440 copies of 11 seditious booklets in their Bukit Timah condominium.

The Sedition Act is designed to punish those who stir up feelings of ill-will and hostility between different races or classes of the population of Singapore.

The punishments the husband and wife of 24 years received, however, were at the lower end of what the prosecution had urged the court to impose.

Under the law, the maximum jail term for distributing a seditious publication is three years' jail for a first offender.

Read the full report in Thursday's edition of the Straits Times

carolynq@sph.com.sg