Hong Kong: 90-year-old Cardinal Joseph Zen arrested

Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, retired bishop emeritus of Hong Kong, was arrested by the national security police. This was reported by sources quoted by the South China Morning Post, according to which the 90-year-old cleric was arrested together with a former opposition MP, Margaret Ng Ngoi-yee, and singer Denise Ho Wan-sze for collusion with foreign forces. The three were trustees of the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund which financially helped those involved in the pro-democracy protests of 2019. Yesterday, another trustee of the fund, Academician Hui Po-keung, was arrested. again on charges of collusion with foreign forces, it was confirmed today by legal sources. The accusation to which the arrested must answer, collusion with foreign forces, is one of the four crimes foreseen by the law on national security in the city imposed by Beijing in June 2020, and condemned internationally, to stop the protests democracy in Hong Kong, together with the crimes of subversion, secession and terrorism and can lead to sentences of up to life imprisonment. Naturally, the story is followed closely by the Holy See which, “learned with concern the news – explains the director of the Holy See Press Office, Matteo Bruni, replying to journalists – of the arrest of Cardinal Zen and is following with extreme attention the ‘evolution of the situation’. «Very serious – comment the deputies of the League Paolo Formentini and Eugenio Zoffili, vice president and group leader of the foreign affairs commission – the arrest in Hong Kong of the cardinal and bishop emeritus Joseph Zen Ze-kiun by the Chinese authorities. Against the umpteenth attack on the freedom to profess one’s religious faith, a unanimous condemnation is needed. Let the whole of Europe make its voice heard. The Beijing regime cannot continue to silence every free voice that believes in the same values ​​and principles on which the pillars of the West rest ”.