Hawaii court’s sentence a triumph for Pastor Quiboloy, lawyer

DAVAO CITY –– The sect of Pastor Apollo Quiboloy regarded as a big triumph the sentence recently handed down by the U.S. District Court of Hawaii, dismissing the currency smuggling charges against the sect’s Hawaii leader Felina Salinas and reducing her sentence to merely a month of detention and a small fine.

“Justice has finally been served and the truth has been told,” said a statement from Lawyer Michael Green, KJC’s general counsel in Hawaii, after Hawaii’s Chief Judge Michael Seabright allowed Salinas to serve the sentence in May next year, “when the COVID-19 pandemic would be over and a vaccine would have been discovered,” the lawyer said in a statement coursed through the Philippine Information Agency here.

The lawyer said Salinas’ sentence, handed down by the District Courthouse of Hawaii presided by Judge Michael Seabright in Honolulu, was the result of more than two years and eight months of litigation. Green called it a “victory for Salinas and the Kingdom of Jesus Christ.”

“This clears the name of Pastor Apollo C. Quiboloy and the Kingdom of Jesus Christ of any charges,” he said in a statement. “We started around four years in prison and now it’s 30 days and frankly, it makes me sick to my stomach (that) it’s 30 days. I wish it (weren’t) one minute. Probation recommended no time,” he said. “She’s gonna go in the spring or summer, she’ll take her Bible. She’ll be there for 30 days. We’ll be able to visit her whenever we want,” he added.

Salinas was charged in 2018 after a suitcase containing more than $300,000 (about P15 million) in undeclared cash was found on a Philippines-bound private jet owned by the church.

She pleaded guilty to giving a false statement to a federal agent, claiming responsibility for the suitcase when she saw it was on board because it wasn’t supposed to be there.

According to Green, Judge Seabright’s decision was “fair and balanced.”

ZB