SINGAPORE, September 3, 2008 (AFP) - A leading Singapore retailer desperate to buy a kidney for a transplant operation was Wednesday sentenced to one day in prison and given a fine in the city-state's first organ-trading case.

The judge said he was showing clemency to Tang Wee Sung, 55, because of his poor health. He receives dialysis treatment and requires dozens of pills and numerous injections every day.

As well as a day's jail, Tang -- who earlier pleaded guilty to entering an illegal arrangement to buy the kidney -- was fined a total of 17,000 Singapore dollars (11,819 US).

He also admitted falsely declaring that the donor was a distant relative, and that no money would be exchanged for the kidney.

At the time of the offences earlier this year, Tang was executive chairman of C.K. Tang, whose Tangs department store is located in Singapore's upmarket Orchard Road tourist and shopping belt.

District Judge Ng Peng Hong fined Tang 7,000 dollars on the first charge.

The more serious second charge carried a maximum penalty of three years in prison and a fine, but Ng said he was exercising mercy and sentenced him to a day's jail and a fine of 10,000 dollars.

'The motive for him seeking the kidney transplant was borne out of a desperate need to save his life,' a copy of the judgement says.

The Indonesian donor, Sulaiman Damanik, who came from a poor background, agreed to sell his kidney for 150 million rupiah (16,287 US dollars).

He was jailed for two weeks in an earlier hearing by a different judge and fined 1,000 Singapore dollars for his role in the case.

Tang's operation did not go ahead after police began investigating organ trading allegations, local newspapers have reported.

As in many other countries, organ-trading is banned in Singapore to prevent exploitation of what the health ministry calls 'poor and socially disadvantaged donors who are unable to make informed choices.'

Tang has recently stepped down from his role as executive chairman of C.K. Tang, a local newspaper reported.