The trial of Hong Kong Cardinal Joseph Zen and four activists, all accused of failing to register a humanitarian fund to support pro-democracy protesters, began Monday in a court in the Chinese region.
A prominent figure in the Asian Catholic Church, 90-year-old Zen was detained in early May along with other pro-democracy figures, including singer Denise Ho and lawyer Margaret Ng, under the security law. national applied on the territory by Beijing in 2020, after being released on bail the same day.
Hong Kong Cardinal Zen denies in court failed fund for protesters
However, the cardinal has not yet been charged with the crime of “collusion with foreign forces,” and is being tried solely by the accusation of not registering with the police the Humanitarian Aid Fund 612.
The defendants managed the now-defunct fund that offered to pay the legal and medical expenses of some pro-democracy protesters in the 2019 Hong Kong protests.
The offense involves the payment of a maximum fine of ten thousand Hong Kong dollars (1,300 euros).
According to the South China Morning Post, the prosecution will be led by Hong Kong Deputy Attorney General Anthony Chau Tin-hang, who also handled the first case to be tried under the national security law.
The final decision will rest with Judge Ada Yim Shun-yee, one of the magistrates appointed by the head of the city government, John Lee Ka-chiu, to handle cases related to the national security law.
The investigation into the establishment of the 612 Humanitarian Aid Fund began after one of the administrators, academician Hui Po-keung, was detained at the airport as he was about to leave for Europe, where he would take up a teaching post.
Most of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy figures are now in prison or have fled abroad, and dozens of political and civil society associations have closed their doors.
The arrest of Cardinal Zen provoked the indignation of the international community, which accuses China of ending freedoms once enjoyed by Hong Kong.
The Vatican reacted cautiously to Zen’s arrest, saying only that it was “following developments very closely.”
The case comes at a sensitive time for the Catholic Church, which is seeking to renew, before the end of the year, an agreement that allows Beijing to appoint bishops in China with the approval of the Pope.
Cardinal Zen criticized this agreement, which he considers detrimental to the Chinese underground church, which refuses to submit to the demands of the Beijing authorities.
Source: Observadora
