Channel News Asia reports,
Accused in City Harvest case discharges lawyer
One of the accused in the City Harvest Church case, Chew Eng Han, will represent himself for the remainder of the trial, and indicated that he made the decision out of “personal conviction”.
SINGAPORE: One of the accused in the City Harvest Church case, Chew Eng Han, will be representing himself when the trial resumes in July, following an application to discharge his lawyer, Senior Counsel Michael Khoo.
Chew indicated on Wednesday (May 28) that he made the decision not to engage a lawyer out of “personal conviction”. He told Channel NewsAsia that he is aware of the challenging task ahead and is in the midst of preparing his defence.
Mr Khoo from the law firm Michael Khoo and Partners has represented Chew for more than a year for the trial.
Chew is one of six City Harvest Church leaders accused of conspiring to cheat the church by funnelling S$24 million into sham investments to finance the career of founder Kong Hee’s wife, singer Sun Ho, and then misappropriating another S$26.6 million to cover up the misuse of the first sum.
Source: By 28 May 2014 18:15. (Accessed 30/05/2014.)
Edit 30/05/2014: More information has come to light in relation to this news.
Mr. Chew Eng Han Self Represents
“Today marks yet another major crossroad of my life. I have discharged my lawyer Mr Michael Khoo and the court has officially acknowledged it. More significantly, I have decided to represent myself in court henceforth.
This decision comes after much thought and deliberation as well as prayer and counsel. Mr Khoo has been a great help as well as a supportive friend to me, but I have a deep personal conviction that I need to speak and deliver my defense in person. It isn’t easy for most to understand this move, but I believe it is the right thing to do. The prosecution has delivered its case, and the honorable judge has decided there is a case to answer. Now is the time for me to answer and I feel that i need to answer for and by myself.
The next tranche starts on July 14th and from now till then it will be an intensive time of self preparation. It is a big step of faith, and the road ahead will be rough, but I trust in the Lord that He will guide me through.
Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”
Chew Eng Han
28 May 2014
Source: Chew Eng Han, Mr. Chew Eng Han Self Represents, Mrs Light and Friends, http://mrslightnfriends.com/mr-chew-eng-han-self-represents, Published 28/05/2014. (Accessed 30/05/2014.)
fsadas
http://mrslightnfriends.com/category/blog/eh
“Today marks yet another major crossroad of my life. I have discharged my lawyer Mr Michael Khoo and the court has officially acknowledged it. More significantly, I have decided to represent myself in court henceforth.
This decision comes after much thought and deliberation as well as prayer and counsel. Mr Khoo has been a great help as well as a supportive friend to me, but I have a deep personal conviction that I need to speak and deliver my defense in person. It isn’t easy for most to understand this move, but I believe it is the right thing to do. The prosecution has delivered its case, and the honorable judge has decided there is a case to answer. Now is the time for me to answer and I feel that i need to answer for and by myself.
The next tranche starts on July 14th and from now till then it will be an intensive time of self preparation. It is a big step of faith, and the road ahead will be rough, but I trust in the Lord that He will guide me through.
Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”
Chew Eng Han
28 May 2014
There’s more interesting articles on his blog above.
An observation from Eng Kian Yap on CHC Confessions:
“What is interesting is Chew Eng Han, and him seeking to conduct his own defence without benefit of council. IMHO it’s amounting to “surrendering” and giving up the white flag. The mechanics of a joint trial are well interesting to say the least but what is unclear to me is the extent to which CEH can cross-examine the other defence witnesses and in turn be cross-examined by lawyers for the defence for the other participants but if I remember it correctly he will be able to question himself the Church hierarchy.”
“If I would hazard a guess, he has come to the realisation via the trial that he has been lied to and well possibly been set up as the fall guy. He has lost in all but name and he is looking at a very very long time in jail for his role. Defending himself allows him the “satisfaction” of “confronting” his accusers and hearing the truth. His testimony would be interesting to watch. Whether he “chooses” to go first, what he says, how far he admits his guilt and how far he chooses to implicate the rest.”
“I hestitate not to pronounce, that every man who is his own lawyer, has a fool for a client.”
It seems Chew Eng Heng is bent on getting the truth into the open, i.e. his version of what took place behind CHC closed doors – things that made him so unhappy causing him to leave CHC. He will attempt to exact maximum blame on to Kong Hee, which is what he could do better that his lawyers. In this manner, he hopes to obtain vindication.
Doing this during the final stretch of the legal process will surely scatter the defence. He will question all the accused in the dock and everyone will fight for him/herself, leaving Kong Kee in a terrible position. Now then, there will be true justice. And there will be light in CHC, and many will be freed from the stronghold of falsehood there. Neither will Pringle escape damage.
Praise the Lord! May the good and holy Name of the Lord be restored in the eyes of non-believers.
@ Q – That particular music clip was brought to the attention of C3 leadership almost immediately after its release. Concerned pastors knew who to approach re its sordidness. The response given was basically like the popular “it’s all good” C3 mantra, being told “they’re good people”, as if to excuse it. Kong Hee’s own explanation, since been deleted, was captured here.
https://c3churchwatch.com/2012/04/19/china-boy-china-wine/
Kong Hee says: “As a professional artist, Sun has to take on many dramatic stage personas. This is what entertainers do. In the “China Wine” video, she happens to be acting in one such role. Fiction must be separated from fact. I think the struggle many pastors have is the difficulty to separate her association with me (as a pastor’ wife) and her career as a singer. I agree that if she is a “pastor” or “preacher,” perhaps the video would have been inappropriate. But Sun is not a pastor. She is an entertainer. All her music videos were not produced by the church but by her secular music label, the company that she is working for.”
By the way, she has always been represented as a pastor at CHC, an executive one at that.
To this day has the congregation at C3 been given a public explanation about it? Would love to hear from someone apart from those I know, who is just a church member.
It appears they’re have been kept in the dark about the court case. Friends who still attend haven’t a clue what’s really going on. And some are beginning to ask the right questions, and powers that be, still plead ignorance of the matter.
Taking up offerings to cover Kong Hee’s legal fees because the “prophesied” innocence? This just one week before the accused were told they do have a case to answer. Surely these people dropping money into that offering are entitled to the whole truth.
As a musician and performer myself I completely understand the professional entertainer career Sun is involved in. As they said “fiction must be separated from fact”; Christian artists and mainstream artists (ie “secular, as Christians like to call it) would understand this.
However, as you said – she has always been represented as a pastor, and therefore have a massive problem with it.
The other massive problem I have is the, as mentioned – typical c3 phrase, “everything’s all right, I’ve got Jesus with me” etc.
Oh and on the Chew issue…without prejudicing etc the case, I think we all know what could be happening. Refer the phrase “plea bargaining”
Oh and I guarantee you with a certainty greater than who will score the first State of Origin try – that if my assumption of the Chew outcome is true, Psalm 41:9 will become the catchphrase all around the CHC/C3 world:
“Even my close friend, someone I trusted, one who shared my bread, has turned against me.”
In the words of the prophet Micaiah – Mark my words, all you people!
I understand to some degree the pressures entertainers are under. But there are still musicians and actresses who refuse to do certain things.
If you’ve signed to a label there are probably pressures to do certain things. But as a Pastor’s wife, or dedicated Christian, I don’t know why she made such a video.
If you can justify that because it’s a persona, you can probably justify anything.
I might become a male stripper and say it’s my persona. Could that be another valid crossover project?
Berean, everything you said in your post about C3 is correct, C3 general members have been given no explanation on the legal cases in both Singapore or Korea.
C3 Pastors plead ignorance whenever asked. Pastors have been instructed I am sure to do this by Pringle. They are trying to whitewash and hide the whole true issues and so they keep the flock uninformed because if it all blows up Pringle can lay low, he will hibernate for a while till it all blows over after a few months. But a lot have been sucked in to help Kong Hee with his legal expenses , and I am sure some when they find out all the dirty laundry of Kong Hee’s situation wont forget Pringle’s misleading spin. I know of some members who are starting to realise that C3 members are not being told the true facts and have closed their wallets. Some members are also privately questioning the movie star lifestyles of the C3 leadership and their families, this all being funded by member donations and tithes. The problem being again no transparency or Governance within C3.
Attn: PHIL PRINGLE. c3 pastors and leaders!!
We all know you read this, so why don’t you face the TRUTH. Please read on.
Chris – you’ve hit the nail on the head. Yes, I am fairly confident that c3 pastors are being to either say nothing, or (as very good sources tell me), they are only telling their leaders the defence story – about the bonds coming back with interest etc – NOT the prosecution case.
What annoys me the most in this whole saga is Phil’s deliberate taking up money without giving the truth of why Kong is on trial.
Attn: Phil Pringle – You are the esteemed, untouchable leader and founder of a massive church movement. Yet as an ex-member of your movement, I say – you should be ashamed of yourself. You know exactly what is going on but you are deliberately misleading and fleecing the flock God has entrusted to you to blindly fund Kong’s defence case.
Attn: Phil Pringle – Maybe if you had said to your flock to check out the case details online (a great deflection – because who is gonna at offering time?), to a degree you may have been slightly justified. But to deliberately mislead them is abhorrent and sinful, especially as a “pastor”, a “leader”.
Attn: Phil Pringle – You know exactly what is going on. And Phil – you better have a good plan in case Kong is convicted, especially if he goes to jail. And Phil – you’d better prepare for it to hit the mainstream Oz media, for hard questions to be asked, and for your sheep to open their eyes, and oh – stop giving and leave.
Hi Squidaloopa, do not fret when evil men do evil things. Vengeance belongs to the Lord God and Pringle has no place to hide from Him. Just be patient and see the righteous arm of the Holy God which is very near!
All these pastors doing wrong and having to be punished as a consequence of their errors, does not bring pleasure or joy to me. In fact it is such a sad senario for them, their families and for us, the church. I will only rejoice in their repentance and their renouncing of all their false teachings and doctrines. Otherwise there is no gain to the church except in warning and reminding others of the dire consequences of wrong doings.
“Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.”(Hebrews 12:16, 17)
From the outset, let me be clear – I’m not using this passage to suggest that all church leaders are involved in fornication or profanity…OK? It’s more about the birthright!
Esau was the ‘older’ and had learned the ways of God from his father, Isaac, but had spurned them and the birthright, and had gone after other gods and pagan women amongst the Horite camp. Jacob may have usurped the birthright, but once given to him, it could not be retracted. Isaac would not change his mind.
Many people in Christian ministry have had ample opportunity to walk in the ways of God, but have chosen to embrace wordliness instead, as a means of filling up their churches with biblically illiterate “tithers”. I’m not suggesting that all church pastors and/or attendees of C3 or other mega churches are like that, nor are they all like Esau.
Considering the amount of people who have left and are leaving, that is certainly not the case, as many have had their eyes opened by recent events,and according to several commenters this last week, many more are beginning to see the truth both here and overseas, in a number of situations – thank God for that. But the ones who do resemble Esau, are dragging the rest along with them into a place where there is no birthright inheritance – only false teaching, false prophecy, money raking etc.
Isaac would not repent of his decision to bless Jacob rather than Esau, any more than the Lord will repent of His decision to bless all those who choose to walk in His ways, and not the ways of the worldly leaders of “churchianity”… Those who may, at a later date. seek the true blessing of the Christian “birthright”, may well seek it with tears, but will not find it… “for it was given to another…” the true believers.
‘Brother’ Chew may be very wise indeed to part company with church hired lawyers, although mounting his own defence may also be fraught with danger. If he were to stay with the lawyers hired by the church, he may well have had to toe the leadership’s line, whereas this way, he will at least be free to speak his mind, and not be used as some potential fall guy/patsy by the rest.
even the Holy Apostles were not afraid to admit their guilt and human sinfulness…Nowadays, to get these ‘preachers’ to admit anything you need to get past a truckload of lawyers. How times have changed.
Hello The Truth – strange, isn’t it, how the Pharisees back in Jesus’ day were also surrounded by a ‘truckload of lawyers’:
“But woe unto you, scribes (lawyers) and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.” (Matthew 23:14)
They just had to have a bunch of lawyers following them around, covering their backsides with ‘their’ interpretation of the law of Moses. How many times did Jesus trip them up, when they sought to catch him out in his speech? Lots.
“And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath: Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath. (Mark 2:27, 28)
The scribes and Pharisees were pretty good at scripture twisting to suit their own ends. Taking the sabbath and making man the slave of their holy day, when God created it as a time of rest from daily labours and an opportunity to fellowship with God, and making it into a legalistic religious holiday (holy day?)
Notice also that in both cases, then and now, the end result of religious leaders, associating with members of the legal fraternity is more or less the same?
“…ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men…” They control the access.
People are kept from entering the real Kingdom of God, because of the actions of these imposters, who claim to be men and women of God, but have no Kingdom fruit in their lives and ministries. It’s all about the crowds, and the money and the influence and the image – well it was – now it’s all about the court case… Maybe “your best life” will be one spent inside a jail cell? What kind of advert is that for the Gospel?
These false prophets do seem to have a hankering for “more money” and let’s not forget about “more sex”… What about “more truth” – or better still, “more repentance”? Now I’d like to see one of these jokers write a good, sound, biblical book, focused on Bible truth – just for once – any takers? Thought not… there’s probably no money in promoting truth…
No doubt many scriptures were twisted, or simply ignored along the way in the case of CHC and there are lessons there for all of us. You cannot claim the ‘blessing’ of God when it is becoming evident that you have not been following God’s ways in order to obtain that “blessing”. No amount of lawyers can give you a clear conscience before God!
“These false prophets do seem to have a hankering for “more money” and let’s not forget about “more sex”… What about “more truth” – or better still, “more repentance”? ”
The local Baptist church is having 3 days of prayer and repentance this week. I’d rather go to a session of that rather than to any at my local c3. Sorry – that’s the way I feel now.