The trial of Chinese citizen journalist Zhang Zhan on charges of “provoking and provoking trouble” is about to begin. Zhang Zhan’s defense attorney, Wen Yu, told the station on Monday after meeting with his client that Zhang Zhan’s case could start in October at the earliest, but is still on a hunger strike. He said that he would defend his client against the charges, but he is still on hunger strike.
Zhang Zhan was arrested on May 14 and detained at the Shanghai Pudong New Area Detention Center for being a citizen journalist in Wuhan and for disclosing to the public what he saw and heard during the Wuhan epidemic. Wen Yu, the defense attorney appointed by Zhang Zhan to meet with his client at the detention center on Monday morning, told Radio Free Asia that Zhang Zhan is very thin and is on a hunger strike: “I went to meet her (Zhang Zhan) at 10 o’clock in the morning, and it went well. The meeting lasted about fifty minutes. She is much thinner now. I asked her what was going on, and she said she was still on hunger strike. I asked her what was going on, and she said she was still on a hunger strike. Now there are two or three people in the same cell who are feeding her liquid food, congee and soup.
Zhang Zhan, 37, was arrested on suspicion of provoking trouble after he traveled from Shanghai to Wuhan in mid-February this year to post about the lack of work by families of new coronary pneumonia patients, patients in hospitals and businesses in the area in the form of self-media.
The trial is about to start Zhang Zhan was thin and frail.
During the 50-minute interview, he repeatedly told Zhang Zhan to take care of her health and prepare for the upcoming court hearing: “Secondly, I want her to prepare and take care of herself so that she can defend herself in court. In the meeting, Zhang Zhan repeatedly told her to get well and prepare for the upcoming trial: “Secondly, she should prepare herself and get well so that she can defend herself in court. The trial may start very soon, probably in October, so you have to be ready.”
A week ago, lawyers from the China Lawyers for Human Rights issued a statement urging authorities to stop persecuting Zhang Zhan and his family. The statement reads, “Shanghai police and prosecutors have illegally placed restrictions on defense lawyers and maliciously made things difficult for them, which is a clear violation of procedural law, restricting and disguising the right to meet with the defense attorneys appointed by Zhang’s mother and depriving them of the right to review documents.
Evidence for the authorities’ accusations are all Internet comments
The case has been reported from Zhang Zhan’s other attorney, Dai Peiqing, and the prosecution’s evidence is all related to Internet comments: “I have looked at the case file, but not in court. She admitted to all of them,” Wen Yu said.
Wen Yu said Zhang Zhan admitted that he had spoken online but did not consider it illegal, so the lawyer will defend Zhang Zhan’s innocence: “We don’t have anything to say about the facts, but we will mainly defend the nature of the case.
Lawyer Chen Jiangang, a member of the China Human Rights Lawyers Group, said he is not optimistic about Zhang’s case in the current situation in China: “The fact that Zhang Zhan is accused of the crime is because Zhang Zhan conveyed some of the real situation in Wuhan, Hubei province, and talked about her personal feelings in Wuhan, which is obviously not guilty, even according to Chinese law. This case is now in court and Zhang Zhan will soon be sent to jail.”
Zhang Zhan graduated from Southwest University of Finance and Economics with a master’s degree in finance, and left her hometown for Shanghai in 2010. She worked as a lawyer and was retaliated against for publishing critical articles on the Internet and was unable to practice law.
Zhang’s arrest sparked concern at home and abroad and led to the signing of a petition calling on Chinese authorities to release Zhang Zhan. Wang Jianhong, director of Humanity China, an NGO dedicated to humanitarian aid for Chinese political prisoners and their families, told the station, “For a month since we learned of Zhang’s hunger strike, people who are concerned about her fate have been very worried about her health and how she will be persecuted. Such a sober freedom fighter, she has no room to speak out, why all her words are openly on the tubing, Twitter, she just sent out what a conscientious Chinese people want to say.”
Three hundred signatures on Zhang Zhan’s case at home and abroad
Recently, some netizens have signed a petition in support of Zhang Zhan. Wang Jianhong said, so far there have been more than 300 people have signed: “The petition calling for the release of Zhang Zhan, so far more than 300 people have signed, we just want to make a voice, Zhang Zhan speech is not guilty, this is a basic common sense, I hope more people can participate, attention to Zhang Zhan, and appeal for her.”
Since last year, Zhang Zhan has been forwarding videos, articles and photos of Hong Kong’s “anti-sending China” protests on WeChat and other online platforms. Last September, Zhang Zhan was detained for 65 days by the Shanghai Huangpu Public Security Bureau on suspicion of provoking and provoking trouble for holding an umbrella in the streets of Shanghai and demanding the end of the socialist system and the downfall of the Communist Party.
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