A Chinese journalist, incarcerated for her coverage of China's response to the emergence of COVID-19 in Wuhan in 2020, is nearing her death in prison, news agency AFP reported. The development has renewed calls for her immediate release by human rights activists.
Zhang Zhan, 38, who is on a hunger strike in jail, is in a perilous condition, as per her brother Zhang Ju.
"Zhang Zhan is 177cm tall and currently weighs less than 40kg. She is so stubborn. I think she may not live long. In the coming cold winter, if she does not persist in the past, I hope the world can remember her as she was," Ju wrote in a tweet on 31 October.
"My mother came back after seeing her the day before yesterday and cried for a long time, with a haggard face and sad eyes. Because Zhang Zhan looked dyingly ill, her body was completely out of shape. She seemed to have only God and her beliefs in her heart, and ignored the others. I feel sorry for my parents," he added.
Zhan, a former lawyer, had visited Wuhan in February 2020. She had reportedly probed into the handling of the then epidemic, questioning the authorities on video.
The journalist had been detained in May 2020, and was sentenced to four years of jail in December on the charge of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble," AFP reported.
'Release Zhang Zhan Immediately': Amnesty International to Chinese Authorities
“Zhang Zhan, who should never have been jailed in the first place, now appears to be at grave risk of dying in prison. The Chinese authorities must release her immediately so that she can end her hunger strike and receive the appropriate medical treatment she desperately needs,” stated China Campaigner at Amnesty International Gwen Lee.
“The Chinese government’s prosecution of Zhang Zhan, simply because she tried to uncover what was happening in Wuhan amid huge government secrecy about the pandemic, is a shameful attack on human rights.”Amnesty International
Various other human rights organisation have also raised alarm over Zhan's condition and have called for her release.
“Unjust sentences handed down against activists in China frequently end up being death sentences,” said a Human Rights Watch researcher, demanding that the Chinese authorities should immediately and unconditionally release Zhang Zhan.
(With inputs from AFP)
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