City Harvest Church founder Kong Hee released from prison after serving 28 months

Today is the day.

Andrew Koay | August 22, 2019, 11:35 AM

City Harvest Church founder Kong Hee has been released from prison.

According to CNA, he walked out of jail a free man on August 22, a day before his 55th birthday.

He had served two years and four months for his role in misusing millions of church funds.

Kong was sentenced to three-and-a-half-years jail, however, inmates typically serve two-thirds of their sentences before they are released on remission.

The longest sentence

He had received the longest sentence out of the six church leaders who were found guilty to have misappropriated S$50 million in church funds.

All of them had their sentences reduced upon appeal, with Kong's sentenced shortened from the initial eight-year jail term that had been meted out.

His release follows that of former deputy senior pastor Tan Ye Peng, who was freed earlier this year on June 1.

The other members of the church who were found guilty are:

  • Chew Eng Han
  • Serena Wee
  • John Lam
  • Sharon Tan

Chew still in jail

Of the six, Chew is still serving jail time after his botched attempt to flee Singapore.

He had originally been given a jail term of three years and four months but was nabbed at sea the day before he was due to turn himself in on Feb. 22, 2018.

Chew was then given an additional jail term of 13 months in January 2019 for attempting to leave Singapore illegally and attempting to defeat the course of justice.

He will serve that sentence after completing his earlier one.

Chew started serving his earlier sentence for the misuse of church funds in March 2018.

The other five CHC leaders who were also convicted of misusing the funds began serving their terms in April 2017.

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Top image taken by ROSLAN RAHMAN/AFP/Getty Images