THE remaining six charges faced by Buddhist monk Ming Yi were formally withdrawn by the prosecution yesterday.
The court heard that Ming Yi, 48, the founder and former chief executive of Ren Ci hospital, had been granted a discharge amounting to an acquittal.
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No reason was formally given for why the charges were withdrawn and he walked out of the Subordinate Courts a free man.
The six withdrawn charges include that for committing forgery for the purpose of cheating, providing misleading information to the Commissioner of Charities, and the misappropriation of Ren Ci's funds.
Ming Yi had been sentenced to 10 months in jail last November after being convicted on four charges made in 2008, including the use of the hospital's funds to grant an unauthorised $50,000 loan to his personal assistant, Raymond Yeung, in 2004. He started serving his sentence only in May - on the same day Yeung began h i s nine-month sentence.
Ming Yi's sentence was cut to six months following a High Court appeal in May this year.
But with remission for good behaviour, he served only four months.
Three of those months were spent in Changi Prison Complex.
Ming Yi spent the remaining month on home detention.
He completed serving his sentence two weeks ago and has since resumed his duties as abbot of Foo Hai Ch'an monastery.
During the hearing yesterday, Ming Yi, dressed in saffron robes, was all smiles and looked relaxed. Approached by reporters after the hearing, which lasted about five minutes, he refused to comment on the case.
He only smiled and said in Mandarin: "Thank you, you must be tired. Sorry for the trouble."
A former member of the Ren Ci staff, Mr David Phua, also had one charge against him formally withdrawn in court yesterday.
The charge was for conspiring with Ming Yi to provide false information to the Commissioner of Charities.
The withdrawal of the six charges against Ming Yi closes the chapter on one of the country's longest-running charity scandals.
The monk, known for the dare-devil stunts he pulled to raise funds for charity, had stepped down as Ren Ci's chief executive in 2008 after he was charged.
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