City Harvest members queue at Sub Courts before dawn again

Undeterred by the rain, about 60 City Harvest Church supporters were huddled outside the Subordinate Courts on Thursday, queuing for passes to gain entry to the morning and afternoon sessions of a high profile multi-million dollar fraud case involving six of their leaders at Court 3.

The first in line told The Straits Times that he had reached at about 4.20am. The second, Mr Arian D., 31, a student from the church's School of Theology, who came ten minutes later, said the rain and puddles of water pooled around the queue, did not dampen spirits.
"Everybody is in the rain together, it's not a big problem.

"It's a personal choice for most of us who are here to support the leaders we love," he added.

Yesterday, the prosecution laid out its case against the accused and its first witness, Ms Lai Baoting, a former assistant accountant at the church, took the stand.

She told the court that she took instructions from two of the accused Serina Wee and Sharon Tan, pertaining to the recording of entries involving millions of dollars to Xtron and AMAC Capital Partners.

Xtron is a production house that managed Ms Ho Yeow Sun's music career. AMAC is owned by another accused Chew Eng Han, and was the investment manager of the church.

Six of its leaders are charged with embezzling more than $50 million dollars from their parish.

Ms Lai will also take the stand on Thursday, the second day of the trial.

Join ST's WhatsApp Channel and get the latest news and must-reads.