Six people related to the 612 Humanitarian Support Fund, including Emeritus Catholic Cardinal Chen Rijun, artist Ho Yunshi, and other people involved in the case of failing to apply for registration or exemption from registration within the specified time limit, will continue their trial in the West Kowloon Court today (27th).
The female inspector pointed out that the relevant associations that had never received the 612 Fund were registered, but the defense lawyer asked her whether the funeral committee of the gambling king Stanley Ho and the election office established by Chief Executive Li Jiachao during the election campaign should also be registered. He believes that how to interpret the definition of a society needs further discussion, and asks the lawyers of both parties to prepare speeches on this.
After hearing the prosecution's evidence in the afternoon, the magistrate ruled that the six defendants' evidence was established.
The defense stated that none of the defendants will defend themselves and that there are no defense witnesses.
Charged with breaching the Societies Ordinance
The six defendants are Chen Rijun, Wu Aiyi, Xu Baoqiang, He Xiulan, He Yunshi, and Shi Chengwei.
The first five defendants are the trustees of the fund, and the sixth defendant is the director general of the secretariat of the fund.
They each deny one count of summons for "failure to apply for registration or exemption from registration as a society within the specified time limit", alleging that they were in Hong Kong from July 16, 2019 to October 31, 2021 as the "612 Humanitarian Support Fund". The local society officer failed to comply with section 5(1) of the Societies Ordinance, Chapter 151, Laws of Hong Kong within the specified time limit.
6 defendants in the case.
(See the picture below for details)
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The defense alleges that the deposits are mostly small amounts
National Security Police Chief Cai Jianzhang was questioned by the defense. He was responsible for the bank accounts and tax records involved in the case. The defense pointed out that the bank accounts used by the 612 Fund had a total deposit of more than 450 million yuan.
The defense pointed out that based on the calculation of more than 100,000 transactions, each transaction was about 4,000 yuan on average. Cai Zhi did not calculate it, but agreed that there were deposits of different amounts such as 500 yuan, 1,000 yuan, and 10,000 yuan.
The defense continued to point out that most of the deposits were small, with deposits of more than 100,000 yuan and a total of less than 9 million yuan.
Cai said that he had not classified them and was not clear.
After Stanley Ho passed away in 2020, his descendants set up a funeral committee to prepare for the funeral.
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The defense asked whether the gambling king's funeral committee was registered
Senior Inspector Gong Yilin testified and worked in the Police Licensing Office. She pointed out that after any local association is established, it must be registered within the time limit, and the name of the association, the address occupied and the information of the three officers should be submitted.
Until June 17 this year, the "612 Humanitarian Support Fund" and the "Humanitarian Support Fund for the Injured and Arrested in the Anti-extradition Movement" had not been registered or exempted from registration.
The defense asked whether the name of the gambling king’s funeral committee was registered as a society after the death of the gambling king the year before.
The defense then asked whether Li Jiachao's campaign office was registered as a society, and the magistrate also pointed out that it had nothing to do with this case.
The defense did not pursue further questions.
Officer asks lawyer to assist court in society definition
Yan Guan said that the "Regulations on Societies" mentions organizations that are exempt from registration. For example, if a family travels, it is not considered that such organizations need to be registered, but if the clan is concentrated, it needs to be registered.
Therefore, she hopes that the prosecution and the defense will assist the court with the legal definitions of associations and officers in their subsequent submissions, including the legal spirit of the ordinance, how to strike a balance in operation, etc., in the hope that it will not disturb the people, but also maintain order and supervision. If there is no relevant case, it should also be handled with common sense, which will affect the whole society.
Case number: WKS 4829-4834/2022
612 Fund involved unregistered Chen Rijun and other 6 people pleaded not guilty. The prosecution said that 270 million was deposited into the account. The 612 Fund involved unregistered defense will argue whether it is the official lawyer of the society. The funeral committee of the political and business fierce group [Liu Huangfa passed away] The funeral committee has more than 500 members, including three chief executives.