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A CATHOLIC CARDINAL critical of Beijing was released on bail by Hong Kong authorities, local media reported today, as his arrest under the city’s national security law prompted US demands that he be freed.
Retired cardinal Joseph Zen, 90, was seen in media footage waving to reporters as he left a police station in the city hours after his arrest, but he did not give a statement.
He was released shortly before the White House issued a statement demanding he be freed “immediately”, and as the Vatican voiced “concern” at his arrest and said it was following the situation “very closely”.
Cantonese pop singer Denise Ho, who was also among a group of veteran democracy advocates arrested under the law, was similarly released on bail, local media said.
Those arrested were all trustees of a now-disbanded fund that helped finance demonstrators detained during massive democracy protests that swept Hong Kong three years ago.
Police said in a statement today that two men and two women, aged between 45 and 90, had been detained for conspiring to collude with foreign forces to endanger national security.
They will all be granted bail but their travel documents will be confiscated, police added.
Zen is a former bishop of Hong Kong and one of the most senior Catholic clerics in the Chinese business hub.
He has been critical of the Vatican’s decision to reach a compromise with China over the appointment of bishops on the mainland and an advocate of Hong Kong’s democracy movement.
Ho is a popular local vocalist and an outspoken advocate for LGBTQ rights.
The other people arrested were veteran barrister Margaret Ng and prominent cultural studies scholar Hui Po-keung.
Police said those arrested were trustees of the “612 Humanitarian Relief Fund”, which helped arrested protesters pay their legal and medical bills.
Those arrested were suspected of endangering national security because they allegedly asked foreign nations or overseas organisations to impose sanctions on Hong Kong, police said.
Yesterday, scholar Hui became the first among the group to be arrested as he tried to leave via the airport to take up an academic post in Europe.
‘Collusion’
The offence of “foreign collusion” was introduced in a sweeping national security law that Beijing imposed on Hong Kong in response to the democracy protests.
The security law has crushed dissent in the once outspoken business hub and can carry up to life in jail.
One of the group’s trustee, democracy activist Cyd Ho, has already been jailed for unauthorised assembly in a separate case.
The fund disbanded last year after the city’s national security police demanded it hand over operational details including information about its donors and beneficiaries.
In its statement today, police said it was also seeking to charge the trustees and an additional person for failing to properly register the group in accordance with law.
Shortly before the fund closed in October, Hong Kong’s Lingnan University said its contract with Hui had ended but declined to state a reason on privacy grounds.
Academics who played prominent roles in Hong Kong’s now decimated democracy movement have often found themselves dropped by universities and are struggling to find work.
A social commentator and prolific author, Hui taught for more than two decades at Lingnan University and was credited by former student leader Nathan Law with inspiring his political career.
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Still persisting with this then, yeah?
@JedBartlett: This shouldn’t require a push notification anymore especially since the numbers are stable at this level for weeks now.
God 20 deaths is awful. Rip
@cearbhaill: on average 600 other people died in Ireland in the last week as well…… Around 31,000 annually.
@Paul Hedderman: But not from a preventable disease. RIP to those who died.
@Paul Whitehead: exactly some people continue to be truly awful. RIP
@Paul Whitehead: I think you’ll find a good chunk are preventable – cancers, heart disease, lung diseases, suicide and lets not forget flu in previous years….. FYI, covid isn’t necessarily the main cause of many of these deaths but may have contributed. Deaths with COVID for 2020 is 2,248 in the running total reported to us. CSO COVID deaths for 2020 is 1,672. You obviously cant class someone terminally ill as a covid death…… Also, the last report on deaths with covid had a mean age of 81 and median age of 82.
@Paul Hedderman: I’ve never understood the mentality of people who say things like that. It’s no big deal that 20 people died from covid because more died from other things!?!? Those are 20 people with families. Have a bit of respect!
@Ger: thanks and well said. His whole train of thought is disgusting. Better off muting him.
@Ger: Sorry but where did I say its no big deal? Thats your words not mine. Original poster said 20 deaths last week were awful, I’m informing them that there was alot more deaths last week than the deaths with covid. Its the reality and takes nothing away from those 20 that died.
@Paul Hedderman: but this article is not about people who died of other causes, is it? Its about, amongst other things, the 20 people who died from covid. Making the comment you did serves no other purpose than to devalue those 20 deaths. You know it, I know it and everyone who read your comment knows it.
@Ger: Exactly, its an article, not the obituaries. Its a purely informational comment which im sure many didnt know.
1789 was the start of the French Revolution and the year that George Washington was elected President of the United States.
It is a prime number and its two halves, 17 and 89 are also prime. Such a prime number is called a Tony Prime, in honour of Dr. Tony.
17 * 89 = 1513 and that is the number of cases that the makey-uppy machine will spout out tomorrow.
@Padraig O Muirthile: and you just might be right !
@Padraig O Muirthile: I was wondering where this was going sir. Made me chuckle.
Hardly a need for boosters, there is a serious need to vaccinate the world before it comes back to bite us.
@Diarmuid Hehir: agree
@Diarmuid Hehir: for high risk people boosters make sense
Close the pubs
@Alison Maguire: open more of them need a drink
Is there anything to be said for another mass!
When will he ever just FXXK OFF
@Leo O’ Leary: yes swearing at covid is how to manage it
When will the truth of the vaccines become obvious to those writing comments here, are you people afraid to face the truth, are will it just be booster after booster?
@JK: you believe and retweet Gillian McKeith, TV’s pôo “doctor” (NB “doctorate” from a 2 weekend course), and you think other people are missing the truth? Heavens.
@JK:
Dreadful grammar. Must try harder.
70% unvaccinated seems to be constant enough lately. With 88% of adults fully vaccinated, the unvaccinated hosts will have to run low soon.
What percentage of deaths and admissions to hospital do the Unvaccinated make up I wonder
@Eamonn Martin: at 20th August 62% of ICU cases were unvaccinated, and 15% were only partially vaccinated.
@Sam Harms: Thanks Sam. With the virus constantly hitting the 12% for a while, really should be on a downward curve soon.
@Eamonn Martin: For now, sure. But if it becomes endemic, it will become a mainly childhood illness – meaning that each new generation will be at risk of variants. So it makes sense to look into vaccinating younger people so they don’t have to get it.
Some older people might need boosters though.
@Eamonn Martin: Hopefully. But there will be an influx of cases in next few weeks and they will rise and peak. Then slowly go downhill.
Feck sake, this “wave” of it should be going into decline soon
@Quiet Goer: it’s new virus waving all over the place omg
The vaccines are doing a mighty job, not.
Course it did, Bob. It’s frictional tripe, the stuff you get your jollies from. I’d say you haven’t taken a walk in the woods since reading on Facebook that Little Red Riding Hood was a true story.
Omg to heigh again
@Richarddoherty: ….and never too high for some on here Richard?
I think they are definitely a good thing for elderly and immunocompromised people. Other than that more should be shared to the developing world. Getting the population in most countries to a decent level of vaccination is the only way to stop major variants like delta in the future
have your say