Hong Kong: Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, who was arrested last week under China’s national security law is scheduled to appear in court on May 24, according to a report by the British daily The Guardian. As per the report the 90-year-old cardinal, who was released on bail shortly after his arrest, will face further legal action.

Cardinal Sen is one of the oldest bishops in the Catholic Church in Asia. The report says the cardinal would be further detained, should charges be laid.

“A source close to him said the cardinal was set to appear in court on 24 May, adding it was possible that he would be further detained, should charges be laid,” Sum Lok-kei wrote in a May 16 article in The Guardian.

Cardinal Zen was arrested on May 11 under China’s national security law with at least four others for his role as a trustee of the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund, which helped pro-democracy protesters in the special administrative region of Hong Kong to pay their legal fees. He was released on bail later that day.

Cardinal Zen, who was Bishop of Hong Kong from 2002 to 2009, has long advocated for underground Catholics in mainland China.

Bishop Malloy of Rockford, chair of the U.S. bishops’ international justice and peace committee, said that the cardinal’s arrest indicates the downward trend in respect for fundamental freedoms and human rights in Hong Kong.

The president of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ conferences, Cardinal Charles Maung Bo of Yangon, expressed profound concern about the situation for human rights and threats to religious freedom in Hong Kong in light of Cardinal Zen’s arrest.

While Hong Kong, a British colony until 1997, used to be one of Asia’s freest and most open cities, it is now transformed into a police state, Cardinal Bo said. He added there are signs that religious freedom is threatened and that religious leaders are self-censoring.

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