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A citizen journalist who covered the Covid-19 epidemic in Wuhan was sentenced today to four years in prison, while the Chinese government insists on the success of its administration in combating the disease that has spread around the world in a year.
Zhang Zhan “seemed very dejected when the sentence was announced,” one of his lawyers, Ren Quanniu, told AFP, expressing “great concern” about the client’s psychological state.
Foreign journalists and diplomats who appeared in the Shanghai court where the 37-year-old former lawyer was tried were unable to enter the courtroom.
Some Zhan supporters were fired by the security forces.
Zhang Zhan could be sentenced to up to five years in prison.
Born in Shanghai, she traveled to Wuhan in February, at the time the epicenter of the epidemic, and posted reports on social media, most of them about the chaotic situation in hospitals.
According to the official balance, the metropolis of 11 million inhabitants registered almost 4 thousand deaths from covid-19, that is, most of the 4,634 deaths recorded throughout China between January and May.
China’s initial response to the epidemic has been widely criticized. Beijing did not declare quarantine in Wuhan and its region until January 23, despite the detection of cases since early December 2019.
Almost a year ago, on December 31, 2019, the first case was notified to the WHO (World Health Organization).
However, at the same time, doctors who mentioned the emergence of a mysterious virus were questioned by the police and accused of “spreading rumors”.
One of them, Dr. Li Wenliang, died a victim of Covid-19 in early February, sparking outrage on social media.
“Extraordinary” success
Zhang was arrested in May and charged with “causing a riot,” a terminology often used against opponents of President Xi Jinping’s regime.
The court accused her of spreading false information via the Internet, another defense attorney, Zhang Keke, told AFP.
Zhang went on a hunger strike in June to protest his arrest, but was force-fed by an investigation, lawyers said.
“When I saw her last week, she said, ‘If I get a severe sentence, I will refuse the food until the end.’ She thinks she will die in prison,” Zhang Keke explained.
In the texts he posted on the Internet, Zhang denounced the confinement imposed on Wuhan and mentioned a “grave violation of human rights”.
Three other citizen journalists, Chen Qiushi, Fang Bin and Li Zehua, were also detained after the coverage of the events. AFP could not contact his lawyers.
Zhang’s trial took place just before the arrival of a mission from the World Health Organization (WHO) to China in January to investigate the origins of the epidemic.
The leaders of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) praised, after a political cabinet meeting, what they called an “extremely extraordinary” success in fighting the pandemic, state agency Xinhua reported on Friday.
The Chinese government often condemns opponents during the Christmas season, when the attention of the rest of the world wanes.
A group of Hong Kong activists who were arrested in August while trying to escape by boat from the former British colony to Taiwan was also scheduled to open in Shenzhen (south) today.
