Retired bishop and longtime Hong Kong democracy advocate Cardinal Joseph Zen was convicted of failing to register a fund providing aid to antigovernment protesters.
The 90-year-old cardinal, along with other activists, failed to file paperwork for the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund, a court ruled Friday. The now-defunct fund offered financial and legal assistance to people arrested during the protests that convulsed the city from mid-2019 until China imposed a sweeping national-security law in 2020.
Although the defendants were only fined, the trial of the elderly cardinal and his co-defendants was a high-profile event, and used evidence subpoenaed under the national-security law.
The prosecution was brought under Hong Kong’s colonial-era Societies Ordinance, introduced in 1911, which requires any group or organisation with more than one individual to register with the police, unless otherwise exempt.
Magistrate Ada Yim said the ordinance applied because the fund had political objectives rather than solely charitable purposes, which could have exempted it from registration.
The cardinal appeared in court with his walking stick, wearing a clerical collar and a cross around his neck. Cardinal Zen said he hoped the case wouldn’t become entangled with the question of religious freedom, saying the two aren’t related.
Beijing and Hong Kong say the law has returned order and stability. Critics say it has effectively cudgelled political opponents and suppressed freedom of expression.
Cardinal Zen has been a prominent critic of an agreement between Beijing and the Vatican that gives Chinese authorities a say in the appointment of Catholic bishops in China, a deal renewed last month.
[Photo: I.Media for Aleteia/AFP]