Zen is amongst 4 high-profile pro-democracy activists arrested by police — the opposite three are Cantopop star Denise Ho, former lawmaker Margaret ​Ng and tutorial Hui Po-keung, in response to the US State Division.

They have been arrested on suspicion of collusion with international forces, a cost below town’s sweeping nationwide safety regulation, in response to an announcement from the Hong Kong Police Pressure.

Town’s nationwide safety police alleged the 4 had requested international governments to impose sanctions on Hong Kong, which it mentioned was an act endangering nationwide safety. The arrested have been launched on bail late on Wednesday evening, in response to the Hong Kong police.

The 4 have been trustees of the 612 Humanitarian Reduction Fund, which was arrange in June 2019 to supply monetary help and authorized recommendation for protesters who have been injured or arrested. The fund ceased operation final yr, after nationwide safety police introduced that they had launched an investigation into its donation sources and whether or not its operations concerned any contravention of the nationwide safety regulation.

Zen was the previous prime Roman Catholic cleric in Hong Kong. He is without doubt one of the metropolis’s most outspoken critics of each the Hong Kong authorities and Beijing, and is called the “conscience of Hong Kong” amongst his supporters.

Responding to Zen’s arrest, the Vatican mentioned it discovered of the information with “concern” and that it’s “following the evolution of the state of affairs with excessive consideration,” it informed CNN in an announcement.

The arrests additionally prompted condemnation from the US and Europe.

“In arresting these veteran activists, students and non secular leaders below the so-called nationwide safety regulation, Hong Kong authorities have once more demonstrated they are going to pursue all means essential to stifle dissent and undercut protecting rights and freedoms,” US State Division ​spokesperson Ned Value mentioned at a press briefing Wednesday.

The European Union’s ​prime diplomat, Excessive Consultant Josep Borrell, mentioned on Twitter he was following the developments with “nice concern.” “The basic freedoms, as assured within the Hong Kong Primary Regulation and within the Sino-British Joint Declaration, have to be revered,” Borrell mentioned.

Amnesty Worldwide’s Asia-Pacific Regional Director Erwin van der Borght mentioned in an announcement that the arrests symbolize a “stunning escalation” even by “Hong Kong’s current requirements of worsening repression,” and demonstrates the Hong Kong authorities’ “callous disregard for the fundamental rights of its residents.”

The arrests got here days after John Lee, a former police officer and safety chief, was chosen as Hong Kong’s subsequent chief on Sunday.

They’re the newest in a sweeping crackdown on Hong Kong’s pro-democracy motion, following the imposition of a controversial Nationwide Safety Regulation on town in 2020. Since then, a lot of the metropolis’s outstanding pro-democracy figures have both been arrested or gone into exile, whereas many impartial media shops and non-government organizations have been shuttered.

The Hong Kong authorities has repeatedly denied criticism that the regulation — which criminalizes acts of secession, subversion, terrorism, and collusion with international forces — has stifled freedoms, claiming as an alternative it has restored order within the metropolis after the 2019 protest motion.

CNN’s Sugam Pokharel, Kristie Lu Stout, Sophie Jeong, Jennifer Deaton, Livia Borghese and Mia Alberti contributed to this report.