BEIJING – A Chinese court has sentenced a civilian journalist to four years in prison in Wuhan, the city where the Kovid-19 epidemic is believed to have started, his lawyer has confirmed.
Zhang Zhan, several, was one of several civilian journalists whose first outbreak of the virus a year earlier drew a more gruesome picture of the early outbreak than the government’s official statement.
Zhang, a former lawyer, arrived in Wuhan from his home in Shanghai in early February to document in a series of how-to posts online about how the city is under control against a new, deadly virus. Some of his posts criticized the Chinese government’s response.
Zhang was detained in May and charged with spreading false information, giving interviews to foreign media, disrupting social order and attacking the government.
On Monday, she was convicted of “picking up fights and inciting trouble,” Zhang’s lawyer, Zhang Kek, who is not affiliated with a civilian journalist, told NBC News on Monday. Zhang did not speak or react to the court’s decision, her lawyer said, adding that she did not respond when asked when she wanted to appeal the sentence.
Before sentencing, Zhang said his client had gone on a “long-term hunger strike” in custody and was being force-fed.
He said Zhang suffered from dizziness and headaches and was “physically fragile.”
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“When I met her days ago, her hands were attached to her waist and a nasogastric tube was inserted into her nose,” he added, adding that her clients were not guilty.
“She has the willpower,” Zhang said.
Human rights group Amnesty International also warned earlier this month about Zhang’s health and the “risk of further torture and other abuse.”
Said the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Do a tweet He was deeply concerned about Zhang’s sentencing on Monday, adding that he would seek his release after raising the issue with authorities, as an example of “excessive applause for freedom of expression linked to Kovid-1to.”
China has been accused of causing an early outbreak and delaying its response, allowing the virus to spread globally. Beijing has denied all allegations, saying it acted swiftly to stop the virus, which has now killed at least 1.8 million people worldwide.
Criticism of China’s early response to the crisis has been heavily censored across the country by whistleblowers silence and state media praising China’s success in eradicating the virus. The country’s health officials say they have reported only 86,976 cases since the outbreak began, compared to more than 80 million worldwide.
In the early days of the outbreak, authorities reprimanded many Wuhan doctors for spreading the rumor, then tried to warn people about the new virus. The most famous of these was Lee Wenling, who later died at Covid-19 and became a national hero.
Several other civilian journalists who reported outside Wuhan during the initial epidemic also appear to have been targeted.
Feng Bin, who shared the video from Wuhan’s hospitals on YouTube, has been missing since February. Chen Qushi, who went missing in February after making social media posts about the outbreak in the city, is under close surveillance and has not spoken publicly, the South China Morning Post reported, according to the South China Morning Post. Wuhan, another civilian journalist reporting from Li Zhuhua, reappeared in a YouTube video in April to say he had been forcibly separated after being missing for nearly two months.
Eric Beculinao reports to Yulia Talmaz from Beijing, London.
The report is contributed by Reuters and the Associated Press.
Janice Mackie Frayer Contributed.
