Zen is amongst 4 high-profile pro-democracy activists arrested by police — the opposite three are Cantopop star Denise Ho, former lawmaker Margaret–Ng and tutorial Hui Po-keung, in keeping with the US State Division.
They had been arrested on suspicion of collusion with overseas forces, a cost underneath town’s sweeping nationwide safety regulation, in keeping with a press release from the Hong Kong Police Drive.
The 4 had been trustees of the 612 Humanitarian Aid Fund, which was arrange in June 2019 to supply monetary support and authorized recommendation for protesters who had been injured or arrested. The fund ceased operation final yr, after the nationwide safety police introduced that they had launched an investigation into its donation sources and whether or not its operations concerned any contravention of the nationwide safety regulation.
Zen was the previous high Roman Catholic cleric in Hong Kong. He is without doubt one of the metropolis’s most outspoken critics of each the Hong Kong authorities and Beijing, and is called the “conscience of Hong Kong” amongst his supporters.
Responding to Zen’s arrest, the Vatican stated it realized of the information with “concern” and that it’s “following the evolution of the state of affairs with excessive consideration,” it instructed CNN in a press release.
The arrests additionally prompted condemnation from the US and Europe.
“In arresting these veteran activists, students and non secular leaders underneath the so-called nationwide safety regulation, Hong Kong authorities have once more demonstrated they’ll pursue all means essential to stifle dissent and undercut rights and freedoms,” US State protecting Division (spokesperson Ned Worth) stated at a press briefing Wednesday.
The European Union’s high diplomat, Excessive Consultant Josep Borrell, stated on Twitter he was following the developments with “nice concern.” “The basic freedoms, as assured within the Hong Kong Fundamental Legislation and within the Sino-British Joint Declaration, should be revered,” Borrell stated.
Amnesty Worldwide’s Asia-Pacific Regional Director Erwin van der Borght stated in a press release that the arrests characterize a “surprising escalation” even by “Hong Kong’s current requirements of worsening repression,” and demonstrates the Hong Kong authorities’ “callous disregard for the essential rights” of its residents.”
The arrests got here days after John Lee, a former police officer and safety chief, was chosen as Hong Kong’s subsequent chief on Sunday.
They’re the most recent in a sweeping crackdown on Hong Kong’s pro-democracy motion, following the imposition of a controversial Nationwide Safety Legislation on town in 2020. Since then, a lot of the metropolis’s outstanding pro-democracy figures have both been arrested or gone into exile, whereas many impartial media retailers and non-government organizations had been shuttered.
The Hong Kong authorities has repeatedly denied criticism that the regulation — which criminalizes acts of secession, subversion, terrorism, and collusion with overseas forces — has stifled freedoms, claiming as a substitute it has restored order within the metropolis after the 2019 protest motion.
CNN’s Sugam Pokharel, Kristie Lu Stout, Sophie Jeong, Jennifer Deaton, Livia Borghese and Mia Alberti contributed to this report.
