This “citizen journalist” was arrested after covering the quarantine of the city where the Covid-19 pandemic started.
Le Monde avec AFP
A Chinese “citizen journalist”, arrested after covering the quarantine of Wuhan, was sentenced Monday, December 28 to 4 years in prison according to her lawyer, a year after the emergence of Covid-19 in this city. Zhang Zhan, a 37-year-old ex-lawyer, was sentenced by a court in eastern Shanghai for “provoking unrest” after a trial lasting several hours, Ren Quanniu, one of his lawyers, told reporters. .
“She seemed very downcast when the judgment was announced,” he told Agence France-Presse (AFP). The terminology of “provocation to unrest” is frequently used against opponents of President Xi Jinping’s regime. Concretely, the court accused her of having disseminated false information on the internet, told AFP her other lawyer, Zhang Keke.
In articles she disseminated online, Ms. Zhang denounced in particular the confinement imposed on Wuhan (center), citing “a serious violation of human rights”. A dozen foreign diplomats and supporters of Ms. Zhang tried unsuccessfully to enter the Shanghai courthouse where the trial was being held, but the police pushed them and the journalists away.
hungry
Zhang Zhan had been on a hunger strike since June and was force-fed using a nasal tube, according to his lawyers. Ms. Zhang, originally from Shanghai, went to Wuhan, then plagued by the epidemic, in February, disseminating reports on social networks, in particular on the chaotic situation of hospitals.
According to the report official, often questioned, the metropolis of 11 million inhabitants alone counted nearly 4,000 deaths from Covid-19, a large part of the 4,634 deaths counted throughout China between January and May. The number of deaths nationwide has not changed since.
China’s initial response to the early days of the epidemic has been criticized, Beijing having waited until January 23 to quarantine Wuhan and its region, while the first cases had been reported in December 2019. But simultaneously, doctors who had mentioned the appearance of a mysterious viruses were questioned by police who accused them of “spreading rumors”.
Besides Zhang Zhan, three other citizen journalists, Chen Qiushi, Fang Bin and Li Zehua, were also detained after covered these events. AFP was unable to contact their lawyers.