Hong Kong: The 90-year-old Cardinal Joseph Zen has filed an appeal with Hong Kong’s High Court following his conviction last month for failing to register a fund that helped pay for the legal fees and medical treatments of Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters.

The Hong Kong Free Press reported on Dec. 14 that the former bishop of Hong Kong filed an appeal of the verdict this week together with four other trustees of the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund who were fined about $500 (HK$4,000) each.

Zen’s trial from September to November focused on whether it was necessary for the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund trustees to apply for local society registration between 2019 and 2021.

Magistrate Ada Yim ruled on Nov. 25 that the fund was a “local society” and was subject to its rules. In her judgment, she said that the fund “had political objectives and thus it was not established solely for charitable purposes.”

Following the ruling, Margaret Ng, a lawyer and fund trustee who was convicted with Zen, highlighted that this was the first time that anyone had been convicted under Hong Kong’s Societies Ordinance for failing to register a society and said that the case is important for “freedom of association in Hong Kong.”

Along with Zen and Ng, singer-activist Denise Ho, cultural studies scholar Hui Po-Keung, and ex-legislator Cyd Ho have also appealed the conviction.
Sze Ching-wee, the former secretary of the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund, has not filed for an appeal. Sze was arrested earlier in November under Hong Kong’s national security law. He has been released on bail and is required to report to the police in February.
Days before Zen filed for an appeal, a Hong Kong court sentenced Jimmy Lai, a Catholic pro-democracy advocate and former publisher of Hong Kong’s Apple Daily to an additional five years and nine months in jail for breaching the lease on one of his newspaper’s offices, according to AFP.

Lai, who has been jailed since December 2020 for his involvement in pro-democracy protests, also faces the possibility of being sentenced to life in prison under national security charges.