Zhang Zhan, a citizen journalist who entered Wuhan last February to report on the Epidemic, was sentenced last December to four years for “provoking and provoking trouble. Since his arrest in May 2020, Zhang has refused to admit guilt and has been on a hunger strike in protest. Recently, news broke that Zhang has been transferred from Shanghai Pudong New Area Detention Center to Shanghai Women’s Prison, but his Family has been denied visits by the prison authorities.
On March 19, China Aid Association President Fu Xiqiu and Humane China Director Wang Jianhong tweeted that Zhang Zhan had recently been transferred to the Shanghai Women’s Prison. Zhang Zhan’s mother received a notice to visit Zhang Zhan, but was stopped by the prison guards. The guard said she needed to call to make an appointment, but the number she provided could not be dialed. Both Fu Xiqiu and Wang Jianhong tweeted that Zhang Zhan’s family is worried about her health as she continues her hunger strike to protest the persecution. I hope friends who are concerned about Zhang Zhan will write to her: “A greeting and a word of encouragement will send warm sunshine to people in prison.” The two also provided their mailing address: Shanghai Women’s Prison, 1601 Zhangjing Road, Sijing Town, Songjiang District, Shanghai, 201601.
Cai Xia, a retired professor at the Central Party School of the Communist Party of China, also tweeted that a friend in China had forwarded information that the martyred woman, Zhang Zhan, had been transferred to Shanghai Women’s Prison and that her family’s request for a visit had been denied. Zhang Zhan has been on a semi-fasting to protest against the illegal persecution. How will she survive four years of prison abuse? Zhang Zhan’s family and friends are worried ……
Zhang Zhan, a former lawyer who graduated from Southwest University of Finance and Economics with a master’s degree in finance, left her hometown of Shaanxi in 2010 for Shanghai, where she was suppressed by the authorities for publishing critical articles on the Internet and was unable to practice her profession normally. In early February of last year, Zhang traveled to Wuhan to cover the epidemic and posted his observations on social media. He was arrested near Wuhan Railway Station on May 14 of the same year and has been detained at Shanghai Pudong New Area Detention Center No. 2 since then.
The CCP’s Shanghai prosecutor’s office said earlier that Zhang Zhan entered Wuhan in early February 2020 and repeatedly posted a large amount of “false information” via text and video via WeChat, Twitter and YouTube. The authorities accused her of giving interviews to foreign media, which “reached a large audience and had a bad impact.
Zhang has been on a hunger strike since her arrest and believes she is not guilty. She told her lawyer that she “did not fabricate any false information” and that she personally went to communities near Wuhan Railway Station and other local pharmacies or supermarkets to interview Wuhan residents and learn first-hand information about the quality of vegetables and the cost of nucleic acid.
As she kept on her hunger strike, the detention center forced her to be fed with a nasogastric tube, and tied her hands with a restraining belt around her waist to prevent her from pulling out the tube. The lawyer, Ren Quanniu, met with Zhang Zhan before the trial and described her as thin and “disfigured”. Ren also tweeted, “She (Zhang Zhan) said her hunger strike is not for herself, but to resist injustice, to atone for the sins of the wicked, she firmly believes in Christ and often prays that God will forgive the wicked and save those who suffer!
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