The Trustees’ Case
These Trustees are people we trust, those who investigate them, do we trust them?
Last Wednesday, May 11th, the Hong Kong police made an arrest that sent shockwaves worldwide.
The news rocked the world probably mainly because the arrest included Cardinal Joseph Zen, who is 90 years old. The total number of arrests was four, and they were all the trustees of the “612 Humanitarian Relief Fund”. There were altogether five trustees, the other is Cyd Ho Sau-Lan who is already in custody with other charges.
It started off with the arrest of cultural studies scholar Hui Po-Keung at Hong Kong International Airport. He was on his way to Europe to take up an academic post and was stopped before he was flying out. News of more arrests was flying out on social media, with no confirmation from the police. It soon became clear that these are all trustees of the “612 Humanitarian Relief Fund”.
When the police confirmed the arrest later in the afternoon, they were all being arrested for “collusion with foreign forces”. All four were being released on bail just before midnight on Wednesday, including Cardinal Joseph Zen, barrister Margaret Ng, singer-activist Denise Ho, and scholar Hui Po-Keung. Their brief bio is still available on the 612 websites.
These people are well-established individuals, renowned and successful in their own field, and well-known to most locals. They put their names behind the fund because they believed it can help a lot of people in dire need in difficult times. Their association with the fund could only make it trustworthy, and people will send in their donations without doubts and worries. The following is copied from their websites, just to give a brief understanding of what they did.
Established on June 15th, 2019, the Fund aims to provide humanitarian and relevant financial support to persons who are injured, arrested, attacked or threatened with violence during Anti-ELAB protests, including but not limited to the actions on 12th June.
We primarily provide legal, medical, psychological and emergency financial assistance.
They started out in such a hurry that they didn’t have time to do the proper registration and couldn’t open a bank account with its own name. To get around that, they used the bank account of the Alliance for True Democracy Limited, one of their allies. People didn’t see it as a problem, and donations were flying in. As so many things had to be taken care of, a large sum of money did come in and out quite often. When the police saw potential national security violations by September last year (2021), They asked the court to freeze the fund and asked the board to surrender documents for investigation.
Since the National Security Law was introduced on June 30th, 2020, many NGOs and grassroots level organizations cease operations to avoid any lawsuits that might follow. The Alliance for True Democracy Limited was one of them, so under the circumstance, the 612 Funds could no longer operate, and they announced they would shut down by the end of October. That left a lot of people in need of assistance in limbo, some individuals and some smaller groups took over to provide some help. However, the police investigation is still ongoing. They probably trying to gather enough evidence to make their next move. When Hui tried to leave Hong Kong last week, they went to work. It’s almost certain that they do have a no-fly list, and it seems to be working fine.
These trustees used their names to ensure the trust between HongKongers and the Fund. The large sum of donations spoke volumes about that trust. If there is a list of all the donors, and it is in the hands of the investigators, what kind of damages it could cause. Any donor could be deemed as a money launderer, and nobody can tell what the consequence would be. This is “white terror” at its worst. How absurd is that? And that’s exactly why people are fleeing Hong Kong!
