SINGAPORE, April 7 — All six former City Harvest Church (CHC) leaders will have their sentences reduced after the High Court ruled in favour of their appeal today and shortened their time behind bars, which now range from seven months to three years and six months’ jail.
From eight years, CHC founder and senior pastor Kong Hee, 52, had his sentence cut to three years and six months. Former CHC fund manager Chew Eng Han, 56, had his term reduced to three years and four months, down from six years.
Deputy senior pastor Tan Ye Peng, 44, got three years and two months, down from 5 years and six months.
Former CHC finance manager Serina Wee, 40, had her term cut to two years and six months, down from five years; whereas former CHC finance committee member John Lam, 49, was sentenced to one year and six months, reduced from three years.
Finally, former CHC finance manager Sharon Tan, 41, received the shortest sentence of seven months’ jail instead of the original 21 months term.
The three-judge panel, which includes Judge of Appeal Chao Hick Tin, Justices Woo Bih Li and Chan Seng Onn, delivered their verdict in a packed court room on Friday, bringing the long-running trial which started in 2013 and took 140 days to a close.
Lam, Kong, Wee and Tan Ye Peng will get two weeks’ deferment to enjoy Easter before serving their sentences. Sharon Tan’s lawyer had asked for, and got, a two month deferment because her family is moving to the US.
Chew, on the other hand, has two weeks to consider if he wish to bring the case up to the apex court.
Expressing their sadness at today’s verdict in a statement posted by Reverend Aries Zulkarnain on the church’s website, the CHC management board said: “We thank God for the shorter sentences. We put our trust in God that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.”
The board also thanked church members for the seven years of “ceaseless prayer and uncompromising faith’, and asked them to pray for and support the six through the difficult time.
The six were found guilty of misappropriating S$50.6 million (RM160.17 million) of church funds in October 2015. The money went into funding the Crossover Project that had tried to use Kong’s wife, Ho Yeow Sun’s secular pop music to evangelise.
All six appealed against their convictions and sentences in a five-day hearing last September. At the same time, prosecutors also appealed for longer sentences of five to 12 years’ jail for the six former leaders who were convicted of varying counts of criminal breach of trust and falsification of accounts.
In arguing for harsher punishments during the appeal hearing last year, prosecutors said church members had supported the project because they were not given the “full facts” about how it was going to work. The lower court had found that the project was financed with S$24 million from the church building fund through sham bonds, while another S$26 million was used to cover up the move.
The prosecutors had used an analogy then where a person would take a Ferrari car if it was offered for free but would not have been so supportive of doing so if he had to use his own money to pay for it.
On the other hand, Kong’s defence lawyer argued that the leaders could not have been dishonest if they had acted in the church’s best interest.
Sharon Tan’s lawyer said that his client was only a “mouthpiece” and had limited understanding of the alleged conspiracy, while Lam, argued his lawyer, was not part of the “core group” that controlled the misappropriated church funds. Wee’s lawyer also tried to downplay his client’s role and described her as an administrator.
After today’s verdict, both sides could still bring the case to the Court of Appeal through a criminal reference application, which must, among other things, relate to questions of law and public interest. — TODAY
