It is the second time in less than a year that Chee Soon Juan has been jailed.

Chee, secretary general of the Singapore Democratic Party, was locked up after the High Court on Tuesday dismissed his appeal against a conviction for attempting to leave the city-state without permission.

A lower court convicted him in February of trying to leave the country last year without permission of the official in charge of his bankruptcy.

Chee was fined S$4000 (US$2627) and faced the jail term if he did not pay.

He was declared bankrupt in February last year for failing to pay S$500,000 in libel damages to Singapore's founding father Lee Kuan Yew and former prime minister Goh Chok Tong.

"As a result of the unsuccessful appeal, the Singapore Democrat Party secretary general has begun his prison term at the Queenstown Remand Prison," said a statement late Tuesday from his party.

Chee's sister, Chee Siok Chin, told AFP that his wife and three children, aged three, five and eight, were able to meet him at the court before he was taken away.

"That was the main thing, that he got to see his kids and kiss them goodbye," she said.

In November and December he served three weeks in prison after he refused to pay a fine of S$5000 in a separate case.

He and two of his supporters were jailed for speaking without a permit during party activities ahead of May general elections won overwhelmingly by the conservative People's Action Party (PAP), which has ruled since 1959.

Singapore's leaders maintain that Western-style liberal democracy is not suitable for the tiny, multi-racial nation. They dismiss criticism from human rights groups who have said the government uses libel laws to silence critics. The leaders say they have to protect their reputations.

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