Dog comments on net are sedition

It all started when a Malay Singaporean woman, Zuraimah Mohammed, penned a letter to the Straits Times newspaper complaining about taxi companies who allow passengers to carry uncaged dogs.

She was apparently worried that the dogs may drool on taxi seats or dirty them with their paws, as dogs do. The Muslim community in Singapore belongs mostly to the Syafie school of thought which forbids contact with dog saliva.

Apparently the letter miffed Nicholas Lim, a 25-year-old assistant marketing manager and Benjamin Koh, a 27-year-old employee at a dog kennel who posted comments against it on their website.

Prosecutors claim that Lim's postings "had a seditious tendency to promote feelings of ill-will and hostility between different classes of the population in Singapore". Koh's was full of expletives.

The two could find themselves facing a maximum penalty of three years and a fine of £1000 per offence. Plus they won't be allowed chewing gum in clink and smoking is forbidden in gaol.

More in the Sydney Morning Herald, here. µ