City Harvest Church's pastor Kong Hee's eight-year prison sentence should be overturned, his lawyers claimed at an appeal court hearing yesterday.
Kong, the founder of the Singapore megachurch, was found guilty last November with five others from the church of misappropriating 50 million Singaporean dollars (around £28 million). The money was funnelled through a complex series of transactions to support the music career of his wife Sun Ho, also one of the church's pastors. Kong and the other defendants claimed it was a legitimate church ministry and that it was an appropriate use of the funds.
The scheme was designed to support City Harvest Church's 'Crossover Project', which aimed to use music to bridge the gap between the church and the wider culture. Kong's defenders have suggested that while this is a common concept in Western Christianity it is foreign to Asian culture.
According to Channel News Asia, Kong's lawyer Edwin Tong argued that he had not personally gained from any of the money he is accused of taking and that the church had suffered no financial loss. The prosecution does not dispute this. Tong said: "It is beyond question that the accused believed wholeheartedly that they were using church funds for an approved church purpose."
He said Kong had consulted auditors and lawyers on controversial bond investments later judged to be fraudulent, and that "every cent was used for the church's mission".
While the six accused hope to be acquitted as a result of their appeal, they also face a prosecution appeal against the length of their sentences on the grounds that they are "manifestly inadequate". The prosecution has called for Kong to serve 11 or 12 years.
