Hong Kong Watch Condemns the Trial and Conviction of the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund Trustees and Secretary
Today, the trustees and secretary of the 612 Humanitarian Relief were found guilty on Friday over failing to register the now-defunct 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund. The five trustees were fined 4000 HKD and the secretary was fined 2500 HKD.
The 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund was established on 15 June 2019, to provide assistance to thousands of protestors in their legal services, medical treatment, psychological counseling, and emergency financial relief. The fund has five trustees: 90-year old Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, Dr. Margaret Ng Ngoi-yee, Dr. Po-Keung Hui, Cyd Ho Sau-Lan, and Denise Ho. The secretary of the fund is Sze Ching-wee.
All six were accused of failing to register the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund, under the Societies Ordinance, within one month of its establishment. The defense argued that the registration requirement contravened freedom of association protected under the Basic Law and the Hong Kong Bill of Rights and added that the requirement did not pass a proportionality test for determining whether a limitation or interference of a right is justified.
The fund had already planned its dissolution in August 2021 after it was announced that the company holding the fund, the Alliance for True Democracy Limited, would become defunct.
Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, Dr. Margaret Ng Ngoi-yee, Denise Ho, and Dr. Po-Keung Hui were also arrested in May 2022 by the National Security Police for alleged conspiracy to collude with foreign powers. Sze Ching-wee was arrested in November 2022 with the charge of “collusion with foreign or overseas forces to endanger national security”.
Commenting on the conviction, Anouk Wear, Research and Policy Advisor at Hong Kong Watch said:
“This sentence marks a new low for the rule of law in Hong Kong. This trial used legal technicalities to arbitrarily target activists and suppress civil and political rights, making it more difficult for civil society to operate in Hong Kong.
For many of the 612 Humanitarian Relief Trustees this trial and conviction is a clear indication that Beijing and its apparatchiks in Hong Kong are laying the groundwork for a future national security trial. This is another reason why today’s ruling must be widely condemned.”