UPDATED: A court in Hong Kong has adjourned the trial of 90-year-old Cardinal Joseph until October 26.
The trial began on Monday (September 26) and was scheduled for five days. However the magistrate adjourned the trial when defense lawyers attempted to cross-examine police witnesses called by the prosecution.
Cardinal Zen is a group of co-defendants standing trial for failing to properly register a fund to provide legal aid to pro-democracy protesters.
The nonagenarian cardinal and retired bishop of Hong Kong arrived at the court in West Kowloon on Monday using a cane to walk. He was arrested in May along with other democracy activists under Hong Kong’s strict national security law.
In addition to Zen, who has been free on bail since early May, several others have been charged for failing to apply for local society registration for the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund between 2019 and 2021.
Those accused with Zen are lawyer Margaret Ng, singer-activist Denise Ho, cultural studies scholar Hui Po-keung, activist Sze Ching-wee, and ex-legislator Cyd Ho.
All the defendants have pleaded not guilty. Cyd Ho is already jailed for a different charge. The fund helped pro-democracy protesters pay their legal fees until it dissolved itself in October 2021.
On the first day of the trial, the prosecution said that the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund had raised a total of $34.4 million and used part of the fund for “political activities and non-charity events” such as donations to protest groups, the news agency AFP reported.
The defense argued that this was irrelevant to the charge as to whether the humanitarian fund had registered correctly. The defendants’ lawyers previously said they had the right to associate under Hong Kong’s Basic Law — the legal framework created when Great Britain handed over Hong Kong to China in 1997.
The defendants have not yet been indicted under Hong Kong’s national security law, which broadly criminalizes “sedition” and “collusion with foreign forces,” which would have carried much more severe penalties.
If convicted under the current charge, Zen and the others could face a fine of about $1,200 but no jail time. Zen’s trial, delayed by one week after the presiding judge tested positive for COVID-19, is expected to conclude in November, according to AFP.
The Vatican has remained mostly silent on Zen’s trial apart from issuing a statement after the cardinal’s arrest in May expressing “concern” and that it was “following the development of the situation with extreme attention.”
The cardinal’s trial comes as the Holy See and Beijing are determining the terms of the renewal of an agreement on the appointment of bishops in China. Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin said in an Italian television interview on September 2 that a delegation of Vatican diplomats has returned from China and that he believes that the agreement will be renewed this fall.
Zen has been one of the most outspoken critics of the Vatican’s agreement with China since it was first signed in 2018, calling it “an incredible betrayal.”
