Hong Kong Cardinal Joseph Zen and four other pro-democracy activists are set to appeal their convictions linked to a defunct fund that supported protesters during the unrest in 2019.
The legal challenge was launched by Cardinal Zen, barrister Margaret Ng, former lawmaker Cyd Ho, scholar Hui Po-keung and singer-activist Denise Ho, who were trustees of the 612 Humanitarian Fund.
Their appeal will be heard at the High Court on January 8, 2025, the Judiciary’s website showed. It is estimated to last for three days.
The pro-democracy figures were found guilty in November 2022 of not registering their fund as a society, which is required under the city’s Societies Ordinance. They were fined HK$4,000 each by then-principal magistrate Ada Yim. Sze Ching-wee, the fund’s former secretary who was charged alongside the trustees in the case, was also found guilty and fined HK$2,500.
The five trustees later filed an appeal in December 2022, while Sze did not challenge his conviction.
‘Political aims’
The Societies Ordinance stipulates that a society must register or apply for an exemption from registration within one month of its establishment. Yim ruled that the 612 Fund was not exempt from the legislation, and the agreement signed by the five trustees carried “political aims.”
She also said the group had engaged the public and had connections with political groups.
Founded in June 2019, the 612 Humanitarian Fund had provided financial support to protesters arrested or injured during the anti-extradition bill movement.
Protests erupted in June 2019 over a since-axed extradition bill. They escalated into sometimes violent displays of dissent against police behaviour, amid calls for democracy and anger over Beijing’s encroachment. Demonstrators demanded an independent probe into police conduct, amnesty for those arrested and a halt to the characterisation of protests as “riots.”
The fund announced in August 2021 that it would dissolve, after it learned that the company holding the fund, the Alliance for True Democracy Limited, would soon be defunct. The fund had been using the Alliance’s bank accounts to receive donations.
The five trustees were arrested in May 2022 by the city’s national security police. Local media reported at the time that they were accused of colluding with foreign forces, but such charges have not been laid on them.
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