Hong Kong court rejects Cardinal Zen’s appeal in 612 Fund case, renewing focus on freedom of association

Hong Kong’s Court of Appeal has rejected a challenge by 94-year-old Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun and four other trustees of the dissolved 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund.

The five were convicted after failing to register the fund, which helped people arrested during the anti-government protests with medical and legal expenses. The fund stopped operating in October 2021. Each defendant was fined HK$4,000 in 2022 under the Societies Ordinance, which requires local organizations to register or seek an exemption within one month of forming. The convictions marked the first case of its kind.

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Pure funds held by the appellants on trust

The other defendants are singer Denise Ho, former Lingnan University associate professor Hui Po-keung, and former pro-democracy lawmakers Margaret Ng and Cyd Ho, who also served as trustees. The appeal judges, Pang Chung-chiu, Fok Chun-ming and Paul Lam, said the fund had not applied for registration or an exemption within the required period. They found that the trustees intended to use it to call for, raise and deploy donations in support of the 2019 protests.

The judges wrote that the fund was not merely “pure funds held by the appellants on trust” and that “there was no evidence that any individual, including the appellants, would suffer an unacceptable and onerous burden on the exercise of their freedom of association rights because of the registration regime.”

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There was no evidence that any individual, including the appellants, would suffer an unacceptable and onerous burden on the exercise of their freedom of association rights because of the registration regime.

Ng said after the appeal was dismissed that she would take the case to Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal. She said the highest court needed to clarify the definition of an association and whether people who jointly take part in any activity must register with police or apply for an exemption. “This has enormous implications for civil society in Hong Kong,” she said.

Zen appeared in court using a walking stick. He and the other defendants were initially arrested in 2022 on suspicion of colluding with foreign forces under the national security law imposed by Beijing, but prosecutors did not charge them under that law. His arrest caused a strong reaction within the Catholic Church. Since the national security law took effect in 2020, Hong Kong’s democratic movement has suffered major setbacks, with many activists imprisoned. Beijing and Hong Kong authorities maintain that the law is necessary to preserve stability.

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This has enormous implications for civil society in Hong Kong.