Zhang Zhan, a 37-year-old former lawyer who exposed the truth about the China-originated virus from Wuhan has been under arrest for months and may not survive says her lawyer. Her lawyer Zhang Keke wrote about her deteriorating health condition in a blog post on Wednesday. “She’s unwell and refused to stop hunger strikes,” he wrote. He explained that Zhang is restrained 24 hours a day with a belt around her waist and both hands tied to prevent her from pulling out a feeding tube.
Zhang’s lawyer, who visited her for the second time this Tuesday, says she’s experiencing headaches, dizziness and stomach and mouth pain due to the insertion of the gastric tube for forced feeding, and that Zhang told him that, “every day is torture.”
Zhang exposed the truth of the conditions prevailing in Wuhan to the outside world by posting videos from the city on her blog and sharing it with friends. At the start of the outbreak, Zhang shared videos about what was happening in Wuhan, criticizing the government’s virus containment measures. Her videos went viral on the internet during the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
In May this year, Zhang was arrested by the Chinese government over frivolous charges like “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”. Similar charges are made by the Chinese authorities to arrest critics of the Chinese government and activists in China. Zhang has faced similar charges before when she had spoken out about pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. Last month, she was formally indicted on charges of spreading false information about coronavirus in Wuhan. If convicted, she faces up to five years in prison.
Her lawyer in an interview to CBS said that Zhang Zhan was very courageous to come to Wuhan in early February to report on the coronavirus epidemic.visited many places and talked to many people in Wuhan. “She reported what she saw and expressed her takes on it. She thinks what the government did was far from enough, and that the government is negligent’, he said.
Zhang Zhan pointed out that the government’s control and monitoring of people was too much. “People were stuck at home with shortages of food or lack of medical care, which would lead to much bigger humanitarian disasters”, he said in the interview. Explaining the reasons for her troubles, the lawyer said that she was marked after she went to a police station looking for the missing Wuhan citizen Fang Bin, who filmed the bodies of coronavirus patients in hospital being transported.
Speaking on the allegation by the government that she maliciously spread information about the virus, Zhang’s lawyer denies it and says that she definitely did not try to harm the government. “On the contrary, it was the government who tried to control people by deleting online posts and admonishing or arresting people who spread information about coronavirus cases. No one dared to speak out under that situation, but Zhang Zhan went to report on the frontline and against the government line”, he says.
On the reasons for her hunger strike, he said that Zhang thinks the arrest and criminal proceedings against her are unlawful, as well as the country’s legal system. “A hunger strike is her way of protesting”, he said. In conclusion, he said that he hopes more of the media and the public can get to know Zhang Zhan and the things she did and the articles she wrote.
Arrested for exposing Wuhan virus
Zhang is among several citizen journalists whose work offered some of the only glimpses to the outside world of what was going on in Wuhan in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic — and who were subsequently detained by the Chinese government.
Chen Qiushi, a former lawyer turned journalist, was detained in January. Li Zehua, who traveled to Wuhan to report after Chen’s disappearance, went missing in early February, but was released in April.
Wuhan resident Fang Bin, who reportedly posted footage of overwhelmed hospitals and filmed police knocking on his door, went missing at the same time, and has not been seen since.
This year, Beijing’s crackdown on human rights advocates and dissidents appears to have worsened.
Few days ago, Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) said that authorities this week detained lawyer Tang Jitian. Lawyers Xie Yanyi, Li Heping and his family, Wang Quanzhang and his family, and the wife of lawyer Yu Wensheng have been placed under house arrest.
Sahana A 
Anjali Singh 
Diksha Bharti