April 07, 2017, 02:20 PM 
City Harvest Church (CHC) co-founder Kong Hee and five of his fellow church leaders have successfully appealed to reduce their sentences previously handed out to them on November 2015.
Following the appeal verdict, Kong Hee has issued a statement thanking his supporters as his sentence is reduced from 8 years to 3 years 6 months.
I know that many of you have been praying and fasting for the team and I. I am very thankful for the support and prayers that have been shown to our families. While the conviction being upheld is not what I have hoped for, I am grateful that the sentence has been reduced. Once again, thank you so much for all the love you have given to me and my family.
Previously, when leaving the court after the appeal, Kong's lawyer Edwin Tong said of his client: "He has told me that he is disappointed with the outcome in terms of the conviction not being overturned."
However, all six church leaders might just serve shorter sentences than what has been reported.
This is so as most offenders in jail in Singapore will be released after serving two-thirds of their sentence, according to the current Conditional Remission System and Mandatory Aftercare Scheme which took effect on July 1, 2014.
This effectively reduces Kong's sentence to 2 years 4 months as part of the remission system.
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