Ten arrested by national security police over ‘612 fund’

Hong Kong’s national security police arrested 10 people on Thursday said to be linked to the "612 Humanitarian Relief Fund" - a fund set up during the 2019 protests assisting local democracy protestors.

According to sources, four men and six women, aged between 26 and 43, were arrested this morning on suspicion of conspiring to collude with foreign forces and inciting a riot.

They were accused to have accepted donations from overseas organizations to offer financial aid to fugitives overseas.

Police said all 10 were being remanded and the possibility of further arrests has not been ruled out.

Sources said pro-democracy activist Bobo Yip Po-lam, a former staff of the fund, was among those arrested this morning.

In May last year, five former trustees of the fund, including Cardinal Joseph Zen, former legislators Margaret Ng Ngoi-yee and Cyd Ho Sau-lan, Cantopop singer Denise Ho Wan-see, and cultural studies scholar Hui Po-keung, were arrested for allegedly colluding with foreign forces.

They were released on bail and no charges have been laid so far.

Four months later, the five trustees, along with the former secretary of the fund Sze Ching-wee, were fined up to HK4,000 each after they were found guilty of failing to register their fund as a society.