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A citizen journalist who covered the COVID-19 epidemic in Wuhan was sentenced this Monday to four years in prison, while the Chinese government boasts of its successes in the fight against the disease that in a year has spread across the planet .
Zhang Zhan “seemed very dejected when the ruling was announced,” one of his lawyers, Ren Quanniu, told AFP, declaring himself “very concerned” about her psychological state.
Foreign journalists and diplomats who traveled to the Shanghai court where the 37-year-old ex-lawyer was tried were unable to enter the courtroom.
Some of his sympathizers were repelled by the security forces during the opening of the process, AFP journalists confirmed.
Originally from Shanghai, she traveled to Wuhan in February, at that time a victim of the epidemic, and published reports on social networks, most of them about the chaotic situation that hospitals were going through.
According to the official balance, in the metropolis of 11 million inhabitants there were about 4,000 deaths from COVID-19, that is, almost all of the 4,634 deaths recorded throughout China between January and May.
The initial response of China to the epidemic has been criticized, as Beijing did not quarantine Wuhan and its region until January 23, despite the fact that cases had been registered since the beginning of December 2019.
Almost a year ago, on December 31, 2019, the first case was reported to the World Health Organization (WHO).
But at the same time, the doctors who mentioned the appearance of a mysterious virus were questioned by the police, who accused them of “spreading rumors”.
One of them, Dr. Li Wenliang, died of COVID-19 in early February, causing outrage on social media.
“Extraordinary” success
As for Zhang, she was arrested in May on charges of “provoking riots,” a terminology often used against opponents of President Xi Jinping’s regime.
Specific, the court accuses her of having spread false information onlineanother lawyer of his, Zhang Keke, told AFP.
Zhang went on a hunger strike in June to protest his detention.But she has been force-fed by nasal intubation, according to her lawyers.
“When I saw her last week, she said, ‘If they give me a heavy sentence, I will refuse any food until the end.’ She believes that she will die in prison,” Zhang Keke explained.
In articles posted online, Zhang denounced the lockdown imposed in Wuhan and referred to a “grave violation of human rights.”
Three other citizen journalists, Chen Qiushi, Fang Bin and Li Zehua, were also arrested after covering these events.
Zhang’s trial took place shortly before a WHO mission arrived in China in January to investigate the origins of the epidemic.
The leaders of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) expressed their satisfaction with their “extremely extraordinary” success in the face of the pandemic, Xinhua news agency reported on Friday after a meeting of the CCP’s political bureau.
The Chinese government often condemns opponents during the end of the year holidays, when the attention of the rest of the world diminishes.
The process of a group of Hong Kong activists who were arrested last August when they tried to flee by boat from the former British colony, bound for Taiwan, was also due to open in Shenzhen (south) on Monday.
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