Hong Kong Court Rejects Cardinal Zen’s Appeal

A Hong Kong court has rejected an appeal by 94-year-old Cardinal Joseph Zen and four others against their convictions for failing to register a fund that provided assistance to people arrested during anti-government protests.

Zen and four other trustees of the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund were each fined HK$4,000 ($512) in 2022 in the first convictions of their kind under the Societies Ordinance. Before ceasing operations in October 2021, the fund helped pay medical and legal fees for arrested protesters.

The Court of Appeal ruled on Thursday that the fund had failed to apply for registration or an exemption within the required one-month period. The judges found that the trustees intended to use the fund to solicit, collect and distribute donations in support of the 2019 protests.

Former pro-democracy lawmaker Margaret Ng announced that the defendants would appeal to Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal.

The case has been closely watched amid a broader crackdown on Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement. The crackdown followed mass protests in 2019 and the introduction of the National Security Law in 2020. Zen and the other defendants were initially arrested on suspicion of colluding with foreign forces under the law but were not charged with that offense.

(AP, TASR, sab)