“I’m just a Hong Kong citizen who strongly supports providing humanitarian assistance,” he said, according to Reuters.
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.
The cardinal’s lawyer Robert Pang argued in court last month that imposing “criminal sanctions on the failure to register must be an infringement of freedom of association.”
Magistrate Ada Yim ruled on Friday that the fund was a “local society” and was subject to its rules, but she did not apply the maximum penalty for the offense of a roughly $1,200 fine.
Yim said in her judgment that the fund “had political objectives and thus it was not established solely for charitable purposes.”
Margaret Ng, a lawyer and fund trustee who was convicted with Zen, told reporters outside of the court that the ruling was significant because it is the first time that anyone in Hong Kong had been convicted under the Societies Ordinance for failing to register a society.
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