BANGKOK– Zhang Zhan, a citizen journalist, was released from prison after serving four years for charges related to reporting on the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, China, according to a video statement she released Tuesday, eight days after the end of her sentence, although there are concerns about the freedom of movement she has.
Zhang was sentenced to four years in prison for “picking quarrels and causing trouble,” a vaguely defined charge often used in political cases, and served her entire sentence. However, on the day of her release, her former lawyers were unable to contact her or her family. Shanghai police visited the activists and her former lawyers in the days before her release.
In a short video, Zhang said she was taken by police to her brother Zhang Ju’s home on May 13, the day she completed her sentence.
“I want to thank everyone for their help and concern,” she said in a soft voice, standing in what appeared to be the hallway of a building.
The video was posted by Jane Wang, a foreign activist who launched the Free Zhang Zhan campaign in the UK and is in contact with one of Zhang’s former lawyers. However, Wang said in a statement that Zhang still had limited freedom. They began to fear that Zhang would be kept under police control even though she was no longer in prison.
The United States Department of State also issued a statement of concern regarding Zhang’s status in the days following his release.
Ren Quanniu represented Zhang before having his license revoked in February 2021. He said he confirmed the video’s veracity by speaking with Zhang’s family.
“She is not free, she is relatively free,” he said in a message to the AP. “She is still under the supervision and care of the police.”
While detained at Shanghai Women’s Prison, Zhang went on a hunger strike and was hospitalized at one point in 2021. Zhang’s family, who could often only speak to her by phone, faced detention. pressure from police during his incarceration, and his parents refused to speak to the news. electrical outlets.
Zhang was among a handful of citizen journalists who traveled to Wuhan, in central China, after the government placed it on full lockdown in February 2020, at the start of the pandemic. She walked around the city documenting public life as fears grew over the novel coronavirus.
Others spent time in prison for documenting the early days of the pandemic, including Fang Bin, who posted videos of overcrowded hospitals and bodies during the outbreak. Fang was sentenced to three years in prison and released in April 2023.
Chen Qiushi, another citizen journalist, disappeared in February 2020 while filming in Wuhan. Chen resurfaced in September 2021 on a friend’s YouTube live video stream, claiming he was suffering from depression. He did not provide details of his disappearance.
The coronavirus remains a sensitive subject in China. In the first week of May, the Chinese scientist who first published a sequence of the COVID-19 virus protested authorities who barred him from his lab, after years of demotions and setbacks .
ABC News
