In 2020, Zen was famously granted just 120 hours outside of Hong Kong, which he used to fly to Rome in a failed attempt to be granted an audience with Pope Francis.
Cardinal Joseph Zen was arrested in May under the draconian National Security Law. The Vatican has been criticized for its lack of support for the 90-year-old prelate.
‘[I]t is clear that [Hong Kong’s National Security Law’s] real purpose is to terrify the people of that once-great city into silence,’ China expert Steven Mosher told LifeSite, adding he has ‘no doubt that the corrupt prosecutors in the case threatened the defendants with life imprisonment if they did not plead guilty.’
Cardinal Joseph Zen faces a financial penalty should he be found guilty of failing to inform the authorities of establishing a society, as despite being arrested under the National Security Law he is not being tried under it.
A Hong Kong magistrate said that evidence presented during a preliminary hearing this week was sufficient to send Cardinal Zen, along with five others, to stand trial in October.
As the Vatican remains silent, a founder of Hong Kong Watch highlighted the Holy See's 'clear marginalisation of Cardinal Zen’ and called its ‘dialogue’ with China ‘wrong’ and ‘naive.’