Zhang Zhan Wiki – Zhang Zhan Biography
Zhang Zhan, a former lawyer and citizen journalist who was arrested in May while reporting from Wuhan, has been sentenced to four years in jail.
Zhang was arrested for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” – an accusation commonly used against dissidents, activists and journalists – with her video and blog reports from the Wuhan lockdown. Last month she was charged with disseminating false information.
Meanwhile, Zhan also live-streamed scenes on social media and filmed outside the Wuhan Institute of Virology — which many believe was the original source of the pandemic. As reported by The Sun, there is no free press in China. Authorities do not think twice before suppressing whistleblowers who are deemed to be undermining the government’s response to the outbreak.
Authorities purportedly apprehended Zhan in her hotel room in Wuhan on May 14 and charged her with “provocation and trouble-making”. Designed to suppress criticism of the government, the catch-all law reportedly has a 100 percent conviction rate and carries a sentence of up to seven years in prison.
Zhang Zhan Age
Zhang Zhan is 37 years old.
Charges
A Chinese journalist who exposed the apparent “cover-up” of Wuhan’s coronavirus outbreak has reportedly been sentenced to four years in prison for “trouble-making”. Following a brief hearing in Shanghai, 37-year-old Zhang Zhan was found guilty of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”, according to her legal team in a report by The Sun.
Zhan, according to the Pudong New Area Peoples Court, allegedly spread false information, disrupted public order, gave interviews to foreign press and “maliciously manipulated” the pandemic. This comes just weeks after it emerged how she was allegedly being “force-fed and kept in restraints” while remanded in custody ahead of her trial. The former lawyer, who was detained in May this year, has reportedly been on a hunger strike for months on end and is currently in poor health.
“Zhang Zhan looked devastated when the sentence was announced,” defense lawyer Ren Quanniu told AFP, recalling how her mother sobbed loudly as the shocking verdict was read out in court. The renegade journalist had made a trip to Wuhan in order to collect first-hand accounts of life under lockdown. Her investigation into crematoriums that were working at midnight went viral online and had cast doubt on the official death toll released by the CCP.
Arrested
Zhang was arrested for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” – an accusation commonly used against dissidents, activists and journalists – with her video and blog reports from the Wuhan lockdown. Last month she was charged with disseminating false information.
On Monday afternoon, just hours after the trial began, Zhang’s lawyer said she had been sentenced to four years in jail.
The prosecution of 10 Hong Kongers detained in mainland China after allegedly attempting to flee to Taiwan also began Monday, amid a crackdown apparently timed with the Christmas period to avoid western scrutiny.
According to The Times, Zhan started a hunger strike in September to protest against her detention. Zhang Keke, her lawyer, revealed earlier this month that he had visited her and found she was wearing a restraining belt around her waist that prevented her from moving her hands.
Zhan reportedly told Keke that the belt was fitted after she recently attempted to pull out feeding tubes that were inserted into her nose and mouth. According to the lawyer, his client was forced to wear the belt 24 hours a day and needed assistance to use the lavatory.
According to The Sun, Keke shared an account of his visit with Zhan on the Chinese blog Rights Protection Network. Zhan reportedly told him she was suffering dizziness, headaches, and pain in her mouth, throat and stomach. Nonetheless, she is reportedly determined to continue her hunger strike.
Zhan’s detention is just one example of a clampdown by Chinese authorities on independent reportage from Wuhan, the original epicenter of Covid-19. State officials have repeatedly been accused of covering up major blunders at the start of the outbreak and also suppressing independent journalism.
A number of whistleblowers, including the notable Dr Li Wenliang, were targeted as they tried to alert authorities at the start of the outbreak in Wuhan. Meanwhile, there is also a lot of skepticism about the official death toll established by the CCP regime, given as 4,634 from 83,418 cases — a figure shockingly lower than several less-populated countries with much-advanced healthcare systems.