Hong Kong cardinal, 4 others face trial over protest fund
A 90-year-old Hong Kong cardinal will go on trial next Monday along with four fellow democracy supporters over their role in running a fund to help defend people arrested in anti-government protests.
Cardinal Joseph Zen, one of Asia's highest-ranking Catholic clerics, was originally detained earlier this year under a national security law that Beijing imposed on Hong Kong to quell dissent.
His arrest for colluding with foreign forces sent shock waves through the city's Catholic community and renewed criticism of Vatican's warming ties with Beijing, including from fellow senior clergymen.
Zen has not been charged with a national security offence, which can carry up to life in jail.
He and his fellow defendants, including activist and singer Denise Ho and former human rights barrister Margaret Ng, are being prosecuted for the less serious offence of failing to properly register their defence fund as a society.
If convicted they face a fine of up to HK $10,000 $1,274 but no jail time. All of them pleaded not guilty.
Pope Francis did not say anything about Zen's arrest after the development of the situation very closely, but he said he was determined to continue pursuing a dialogue with Beijing and has been muted by the Vatican.
Zen's prosecution comes at a sensitive time for the Vatican, which is working to renew its controversial agreement with Beijing later this year over the appointment of bishops in China.
Zen was hugely critical, calling the deal a sellout of China's underground Catholics.
One of the most prominent Catholic clergymen to criticise the Vatican's response to Zen's arrest is German Cardinal Gerhard Mueller. Mueller told the Italian newspaper Il Messaggero earlier this month that he was disappointed that a recent consistory of cardinals in Rome did not speak in support of Zen.
He said that he would not want the silence of the consistory over Bishop Zen to reveal the fact that this cardinal will be sacrificed on the altar of reason to defend and implement the diplomatic agreement with Beijing. I feel pain and I foresee this risk. Zen s group was trustees of a now defunct fund that helped pay legal and medical costs for those arrested during the huge and sometimes violent democracy protests three years ago.
China responded to the protests with a sweeping crackdown on dissent.
A majority of the city's most prominent democratic activists are now in jail or have fled overseas, while dozens of civil society groups have shuttered.
Some groups have been prosecuted for funding and registration irregularities, even though several had functioned without incident for years, including the alliance that used to organise the city's annual Tiananmen crackdown vigils.
Hong Kong's government says prosecutors are simply following the law.
Critics say a form of lawfare has been launched to silence critical groups and bog them down in expensive legal fights.
Zen's 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund is charged with not properly registering under the Societies Ordinance, a colonial-era law from 1911.
The fund was disbanded after the national security police demanded it hand over operational details, including information about donors and beneficiaries.
The investigation was started when one of the defendants, cultural studies scholar Hui Po-keung, was intercepted on May 20 at Hong Kong's airport on May 20 as he tried to leave to take up an academic post in Europe.