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Retired bishop, Cardinal Joseph Zen, 90, Friday, was convicted and fined along with five others after being found guilty by a Hong Kong court of failing to register a fund for pro-democracy protesters.
Zen was first arrested in May on suspicion of colluding with foreign forces under a Beijing-imposed National Security Law.
While Zen has not yet been charged with national security-related charges, he and the five others were charged with failing to properly register the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund.
The fund helped pay medical and legal fees for arrested protesters.
The fund was established in 2019 and ceased operations in October 2021.
Zen, alongside singer Denise Ho, scholar Hui Po Keung, and former pro-democracy lawmakers Margaret Ng and Cyd Ho, were trustees of the fund. They were each fined 4,000 Hong Kong dollars (NZD820).
A sixth defendant, Sze Ching-wee, was the fund’s secretary and was fined HK$2500 (NZD512).
Cardinal Zen, who has long been a staunch advocate of democratic rights and freedoms and a critic of the Chinese Communist Party, stressed that the fund had aimed to help people in need.
“I’m just a Hong Kong citizen who strongly supports providing humanitarian assistance,” he said after the verdict.
“Although I’m a religious figure, I hope this [case] won’t be associated with our freedom of religion. It’s not related.”
The Societies Ordinance requires local organisations to register or apply for an exemption within a month of their establishment.
Those who failed to do so face a fine of up to HK$10,000 ($1,273), with no jail time, upon first conviction.
Handing down the verdict, Principal Magistrate Ada Yim ruled that the fund is considered an organisation that is obliged to register as it was not purely for charity purposes.
The judgement holds significance as it is the first time that residents had to face a charge under the ordinance for failing to register, Ng told reporters after the hearing.
“The effect to other people, to the many, many citizens who are associated together to do one thing or another, and what will happen to them, is very important,” the veteran lawyer said.
“It is also extremely important about the freedom of association in Hong Kong under Societies Ordinance.”
Even after this verdict, authorities could still take further action against Cardinal Zen and the other five as police investigate an accusation of “collusion with foreign forces”.
Commenting on the sentence, Gianni Criveller in UCANews.com says: that many in Hong Kong consider it as an intimidation measure aimed at sending a warning to those who have believed and hoped in democracy.
Calling it “an unprecedented fact for Hong Kong”, Criveller says the guilty sentence against a popular religious leader, an unprecedented fact for Hong Kong.
Balancing his “unprecedented” comment, Criveller also observes that the modest size of the fine suggests a low-profile way to close a story that was embarrassing for the Hong Kong police, judiciary and political authorities.
The Vatican had expressed concern for the safety of Cardinal Zen, though it stopped short of explicitly criticising authorities at the time.
Sources
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