Chee Soon Juan, secretary-general of the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP), is facing possible contempt charges after saying during a libel hearing that justice in Singapore had been "raped" and "kicked."

He told a Supreme Court judge Friday he will be defended by veteran opposition figure and lawyer J.B. Jeyaretnam.

The hearing will mark a rare public joining of forces for the pair, among only a very few Singaporeans to have spoken out against the People's Action Party (PAP), which has ruled since 1959.

Chee, his sister Chee Siok Chin and their party have already been found guilty of libelling Singapore's founding father Lee Kuan Yew and his son, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

Justice Belinda Ang Saw Ean has ordered Chee to court to show why he should not be charged with contempt over his "attacks on the judiciary" during a hearing to determine libel damages.

Ang, who ruled on Friday that Chee's sister had committed contempt, has agreed to adjourn the case until Monday after Chee said Jeyaretnam was out of the country.

His sister will be sentenced on Monday before Chee's hearing.

Chee Soon Juan was jailed for an unprecedented eight-day term in March 2006 after questioning the integrity of the judicial system in a statement he read during his bankruptcy hearing earlier that year.

He was declared bankrupt after failing to pay S$500,000 (US$366,300) in libel damages to Lee Kuan Yew and another former prime minister over remarks made in 2001.

Jeyaretnam, 82, who last month filed papers to register the new opposition Reform Party, made political history in 1981 when he became the first opposition politician elected to parliament. He was then secretary general of the Workers' Party.

In 2001 he was declared bankrupt and disbarred after he failed to pay libel damages to members of the PAP, including former prime minister Goh Chok Tong.

The Lees have won hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages from lawsuits against members of the country's tiny opposition and insist that they need to protect their reputations from unfounded attacks.

During his bankruptcy, Jeyaretnam was reduced to hawking his self-penned books outside city subway stations.

The formation of the new Reform Party marked his full return to politics after emerging from bankruptcy and being reinstated as a lawyer.

Chee's sister told AFP Chee and Jeyaretnam had founded a civil society group several years ago and continue to talk with each other, but she did not recall whether they had worked together in this way before.

Earlier Friday, a judge fined Chee for speaking in public without a permit. He will be jailed for five weeks if he does not pay the S$5000-dollar fine, Judge Jasvender Kaur ruled.

Chee has served previous jail terms for earlier convictions on similar charges of speaking without a permit.

He was charged with eight counts of speaking to the public without a licence between November 2005 and April 2006 -- just ahead of a general election -- according to court documents. Most of the charges have not yet been tried in court.

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