Hong Kong police arrested on Tuesday night a retired Catholic bishop and four other individuals who allegedly funneled financial aid to pro-democracy protestors on charges of "collusion with foreign forces."
A legal source confirmed to Reuters that Cardinal Joseph Zen, 90, had been detained under this pretense. He is in custody at the Chai Wan police station, a police sergeant told Reuters. The officer said Zen is being questioned for his involvement.
The other four who were arrested included senior barrister Margaret Ng, activist and pop singer Denise Ho, former lawmaker Cyd Ho, and former academic Hui Po-keung, Reuters noted.
Zen gained notoriety for speaking out against the Chinese Communist Party regime and its repression of pro-democracy dissenters in Hong Kong as well as Catholics in the country.
Hong Kong has been known to be a haven for Catholic support organizations and missions.
Arrests like that of Zen have increased since Beijing enacted a strict national security law in June 2020 that authorized police to target terrorism, collusion with foreign forces, subversion and secession, and other conspiratorial activities hostile to the government with long and very punitive prison sentences.
The five had operated the “612 Humanitarian Relief Fund," now defunct, which helped demonstrators who had been arrested during pro-democracy, anti-China protests in 2019 to help pay their legal and medical fees.
Authorities had reportedly been probing the organization for national security law violations since last September.
The five arrests are consistent with China's poor human rights record over recent years, which also includes the genocide of the Uighur Muslim minority in the Xinjiang region, military aggression towards Taiwan, and the oppression of Tibetan citizens.
 |
Commentaires
Enregistrer un commentaire
Thank you to leave a comment on my site