One fresh charge for ex-City Harvest Church fund manager Chew Eng Han

SINGAPORE — Nearly a month into serving his jail sentence for criminal breach of trust, former City Harvest Church fund manager Chew Eng Han faces one fresh charge. 

On Thursday (March 29), Chew was charged with one count of attempting to defeat the course of justice, by allegedly trying to flee the country illegally on Feb 21. If convicted, the 57-year-old could face a jail term of up to three-and-a-half years, and/or a fine. 

Chew was supposed to start serving his jail term of three years and four months for criminal breach of trust on Feb 22. 

But a day before he was supposed to surrender himself to the court, Chew was arrested by the police for allegedly trying to leave the country illegally from the Pulau Ubin jetty using a motorised sampan. 

A 53-year-old boatman, Tan Poh Teck, was also charged with abetting Chew to flee the country, as well as allegedly assisting another man to illegally leave Singapore.

Malaysian Khoo Kea Leng, 46, is accused of collecting S$8,000 in cash from Chew in the vicinity of Block 75 Marine Drive, the day before Chew’s attempted escape, as part of payment for conveying Chew from Singapore to Malaysia.

Chew's elder brother, Chew Eng Soon, 61, was also arrested on the same day as his brother, but was later released on bail. 

Chew was allowed to defer the start of his jail term so that he can spend Chinese New Year with his family, and was the only one of the six former church leaders not to have started serving his sentence.

In January, the apex court rejected the prosecution's bid to reinstate longer jail terms for Chew and the five former church leaders, including founder Kong Hee. The six were found guilty of misusing more than S$50 million of church funds.

On Feb 27, the Court of Appeal ordered that the younger Chew should commence his jail sentence for criminal breach of trust when he is no longer under remand for his illegal escape. 

Chew's case will next be heard on May 3.

On Thursday, Chew appeared in court via video-link. Dressed in a white T-shirt, with his head shorn, Chew looked listless, as his fresh charge was read to him. 

Tan and Khoo's cases were also mentioned on Thursday. No fresh charges were tendered against them. 

The court heard that Khoo intends to plead guilty to his charge, and will return to court on April 12. Tan returns to court on May 3.