Cardinal Zen and Four Others Plead Not Guilty

Margaret Ng, Cardinal Zen, and Hui Po-keung arriving in court

Ninety-year-old retired Cardinal Joseph Zen raised his left fist as a sign he was fighting strong as he entered the courtroom this morning in Hong Kong to face charges of failing to register 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund with the government. 

He had five others -- musician and singer Denise Ho Wan-see, barrister Margaret Ng Ngoi-yee, academic Hui Po-keung, former lawmaker Cyd Ho Sau-lan, and secretary Sze Ching-wee all pleaded not guilty and their cases will be heard September 19-23.

Their lawyer will dispute if the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund is a "society" under the Societies Ordinance, while prosecutor Laura Ng told the court it has 17 witnesses, 10 boxes of exhibits and eight hours of video recordings.

Denise Ho is also a 612 fund trustee facing charge

"I am not teaching the Department of Justice on how to make a case, but this is disproportionate for a summon case," said Robert Pang SC, on the amount of evidence.

Pang says this because the maximum fine for the offence is HK$10,000. but all five had to give up their passports.

Some law pundits are questioning if the DOJ is efficiently using its resources as well as those of the police and the courts... 

Meanwhile on the Covid-19 front, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor says there will unlikely be an reopening of the border between Hong Kong an the mainland before her tenure is up at the end of June.

Currently arrivals to Hong Kong must be fully vaccinated and take PCR tests 24 hours before arrival as well as after landing. Then they must complete seven days of hotel quarantine testing negative throughout.

Lam says border not opening before end of June

Various chambers of commerce have suggested to Lam and through the media that Hong Kong reopen its borders, particularly international ones to keep the city afloat as it is or was supposed to be a finance and trading hub.

But Lam told the media this morning this would not happen anytime in the near future.

"We have to be extremely careful in implementing the restrictions on border control. I would say that at this point in time, it is very unlikely that during my term there will be more relaxations on the border controls... in order to keep Hong Kong safe," she said.

While this continues to frustrate the business community, we'll only know if change will come from July 1 when her successor John Lee Ka-chiu takes over the reins of Hong Kong. Lam must be counting the days, minutes and seconds until her job ends...