Strasbourg, France, Jul 8, 2022 / 04:24 am
The European Parliament has called on the Vatican "to give full support to Cardinal Zen" and told the Holy See it should "strengthen its diplomatic efforts and its leverage on the Chinese authorities".
In a resolution passed on July 7, the parliament condemned the arrest of the 90-year-old former bishop of Hong Kong by Chinese authorities and demanded that all charges against him be dropped.
Cardinal Zen was charged in a Hong Kong court on May 24 with four other prominent democracy advocates who were all trustees of the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund, which helped pro-democracy protesters to pay their legal fees.
In the non-binding resolution passed on Thursday, the EU parliament decried the arrest of Zen as "an attack on the freedoms guaranteed in the Hong Kong Basic Law, including the freedom of religion or belief".