The High Court may have drastically slashed their prison sentences last week, but this by no means indicates that the case is over for the six City Harvest Church leaders convicted for misappropriation of millions in church funds.
The Attorney-General’s Chambers have announced their decision to take the case to the Court of Appeal, where they will question the High Court’s decision on their sentences. In fact, the prosecution in the case has already filed a Criminal Reference today. Oh snap!
“Having carefully considered the written grounds, the Prosecution is of the view that there are questions of law of public interest that have arisen out of the High Court’s decision, including and in particular, whether a director or a member of the governing body of a company or organisation who is entrusted with property, or with any dominion over property, is so entrusted in the way of his business as an agent for the purposes of section 409 of the Penal Code.”
Yeah, we couldn’t really make sense of all that legalese either, so here’s a short explainer.
- Church founder Kong Hee and his squad had their sentences significantly slashed after a three-judge panel reduced their convictions.
- It was reduced based on a technicality. The six were originally convicted for criminal breach of trust as agents under Section 409 of the Penal Code.
- It was later determined that the six should not be considered ‘agents’. “The majority of the High Court ruled that being a director of a company or a society does not render a person to be in the business of an agent within the meaning of section 409 of the Penal Code”.
- So instead, their offence was replaced with basic criminal breach of trust under Section 406. This reduced their sentences greatly, and even halved the jail time for some.
- The prosecutors are miffed that this happened, obviously. Kong Hee and City Harvest Church were also upset that their appeal against the conviction failed.
With the filing of criminal reference, the prosecution intends to request the Court of Appeal to reinstate the six’s original convictions and sentences.
This really shouldn’t come as a surprise to the City Harvest Church leaders and their congregation — Law Minister K Shanmugam assured the public on Saturday that the matter wasn’t over yet, in response to outcry regarding the reduced sentences.
“They told the Government they were appealing and they gave their reasons — and why the sentence was low,” said the minister of the AGC. “And the Government believed that the original sentences were too low as well.”
