Five pro-democracy trustees appeal 2019 protest-fund convictions to Hong Kong’s top court

Cardinal Joseph Zen, barrister Margaret Ng, former legislator Cyd Ho, scholar Hui Po-keung and singer-activist Denise Ho served as trustees of the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund, which assisted protesters arrested during the 2019 anti-extradition demonstrations. In November 2022, a West Kowloon Magistrates’ Court convicted them of failing to register the fund as a society, imposing a HK$4,000 fine on each. The Court of Appeal affirmed the convictions, rejecting the trustees’ claim that the fund operated as a trust and that the law infringed on association rights.

The five have now appealed to the Court of Final Appeal, where judges previously described the fund as more than “a mere sum of moneys” and required registration under the Societies Ordinance. Their appeal marks the first conviction for this specific offence in Hong Kong.