Hong Kong: Cardinal Zen in court


90-year-old Catholic Cardinal Joseph Zen appeared in a Hong Kong court on Tuesday (24 May) where he was charged with failing to properly register a fund to help pro-democracy protesters.

Bishop Zen, one of the highest dignitaries of the Catholic Church in Asia, was arrested in early May along with four other leading figures of the pro-democracy movement, including singer Denise Ho and lawyer Margaret Ng in the name of the law on national security.

Life imprisonment incurred

These personalities were the administrators of a fund, now dissolved, offering to finance part of the legal and medical costs of those arrested during the major pro-democracy demonstrations of 2019. They were arrested for “conspiracy of collusion with foreign forces“, a charge that incurs life imprisonment under the national security law imposed by Beijing in 2020.

But the court has so far only accepted the accusation of failure to register the fund with the police, which does not stem from the law on national security and incurs a fine of 10,000 Hong Kong dollars (1190 euros) for a first conviction.

“Classic bashing” of Westerners

All defendants pleaded not guilty on Tuesday. The trial will begin on September 19. The investigation against the612 Humanitarian Relief Fundwas launched after one of the administrators, academic Hui Po-keung, was arrested at the airport as he was about to take up a post at a European faculty.

Cardinal Zen’s arrest has sparked outrage in many Western countries, which accuse China of ending the freedoms once promised to Hong Kong. Criticisms that the city’s Minister of Security, Chris Tang, described in the local press on Monday as “classic smear campaign“. The Vicar General of Hong Kong Joseph Chan attended the hearing on Tuesday, but assured that he did not represent the diocese there.

Cardinal Zenwas my teacher, so I came“, he explained to AFP. Joseph Chan said he was especially concerned about the health of Bishop Zen, even though he seemed to be in a good mood. The cardinal has planned to celebrate a mass “for China” Tuesday evening.



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