Joachim Kang, 55, appeared in the High Court Friday to ask that the Commercial Affairs Department give him back US$4.7 million worth of assets and personal belongings seized during a probe last year, the Straits Times reported.

The department is the city-state's lead agency against financial crime.

Kang's lawyers, Peter Low and Mark Goh, said in court that he needed to fulfil his promise to return the money he took from the Church.

After a meeting with the attorney general's chambers on Friday to determine which of Kang's assets could be returned, Low told reporters that Kang's request would probably be granted.

Kang, who appeared in court dressed in bright orange prison overalls instead of his usual priestly garb, is hoping to retrieve cheque books for US$1.5 million in bank accounts, the deeds to six houses, a Rolex watch he bought for his parents and his wine collection, among other things.

He had said in his mitigation plea that he would repay the Church by turning over cash and selling two properties he has here as well as four more in Malaysia.

Kang was sentenced in April to seven-and-a-half years' jail for stealing Church funds while he was parish priest of the local Church of Saint Teresa.

He is also facing a civil suit brought against him by a wealthy former parishioner who alleges she had given him $880,000 worth of cash and shares of stock for safekeeping before the scandal came to light.

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