A Singapore court Monday convicted a 72-year-old grandmother for owning a Bible and other literature published by the banned Jehovah's Witnesses.
Yu Nguk Ding, a retired nurse, faces up to two years in jail, lawyers said. She is expected to be sentenced on Tuesday.Yu is the oldest person ever tried under the city-state's Undesirable Publications Act, her lawyer S. Asogan told reporters during a break in Monday's trial.
The Jehovah's Witnesses were banned under Singapore's Societies Act in 1972 because their male followers refused to perform compulsory military duty.
Police say there are 2,000 Jehovah's Witnesses in Singapore. Although the group is banned, Jehovah's Witnesses have the right to practice, preach and profess their faith in Singapore. However, they can be arrested if they possess banned publications or gather ingroups of more than four people.
Other Christians are allowed to keep Bibles in Singapore, and so are Jehovah's Witnesses - unless the Bibles are published by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society or the International Bible Student Association. Yu's Bible was published by the Watchtower.
Since November of last year, Singapore courts have convicted more than 60 Jehovah's Witnesses in cases that sparked protests by the London-based human rights body Amnesty International.
The trials followed police raids on four private residences last year during which dozens of Jehovah's Witnesses were arrested.
Yu was arrested separately on March 31 of last year while engaged in door-to-door evangelising in an apartment building.
Most of the convicted Jehovah's Witnesses chose to serve prison terms of up to four weeks rather than pay fines of up to Singapore $4,000 ($2,837).
Yu served six days in jail in April of this year after a separate conviction under the Undesirable Publications Act.