A Chinese citizen journalist who has been detained since May this year for reporting on the novel. coronavirus
Outbreak through social media faces up to five years in prison.
The police forcibly took Zhang Zhan away and detained him for criticizing the Wuhan administration for its handling of the virus. She was detained on suspicion of “causing fights and causing trouble”.
Zhan, a former lawyer, who was hailed for reporting the truth of the COVID-19 The Shanghai prosecution has formally indicted the crisis for allegedly spreading false information, according to an indictment sheet that has now appeared.
The indictment sheet released Monday alleges that Zhan had shared ‘false’ information through various texts, video clips, and online media sharing platforms such as WeChat, Twitter and YouTube. She was also accused of accepting interviews with foreign media agencies with which she maliciously spread false information about the virus in Wuhan. Therefore, a sentence of four to five years was recommended.
According to the NGO China Network of Human Rights Defenders (CHRD), Zhan’s reports included the arrest of other independent reports and the harassment of the victims’ families who were seeking accountability.
Zhan disappeared from Wuhan on May 14, a day later it was revealed that she was detained by police in Shanghai, which is more than 640 kilometers away, the NGO CHRD said. However, she was formally arrested in Shanghai on June 19 this year and almost three months later, on September 9, her lawyer was granted a meeting with her, they added.
They also said that Zhan has been on a hunger strike in protest against his arrest. Her attorney received a call on September 18 telling her that she had been charged and formally charged on Friday of last week.
This is not the first time that Zhang Zhan has had a brush with the authorities. According to CHRD, she was detained in 2018 and 2019 for expressing her support for activists in Hong Kong. She was detained for more than two months and was reportedly forced to undergo psychiatric evaluations while in custody.
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