Chinese citizen journalist Zhang Zhan sentenced for reporting early on COVID in Wuhan
The lawyer, who visited her at least twice, said she was 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 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.
Citizen journalist Chen Qiushi went missing in February at about the same time as Li Zehua and Wuhan resident Fang Bin, both of whom also reported on the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan. Li Zehua was released in April.
China has been accused of covering up the initial outbreak and delaying the release of crucial information, enabling the virus to spread and contributing to the pandemic that has sickened more than 80 million people worldwide and killed almost 1.8 million. Beijing vigorously denies the accusations, saying it took swift action that bought time for the rest of the world to prepare.
China's ruling Communist Party tightly controls the media and seeks to block dissemination of information it hasn't approved for release.
In the early days of the outbreak, authorities reprimanded several Wuhan doctors for "rumor-mongering" after they alerted friends on social media. The best known of the doctors, Li Wenliang, later succumbed to COVID-19.
Separately, Agency France Presse reports China has put on trial 10 of 12 pro-democracy activists who tried to escape Hong Kong by speedboat for sanctuary in Taiwan.
The U.S. urged the immediate release of dissidents it says "fled tyranny."
The ten of the so-called "Hong Kong 12" were in court in the southern city of Shenzhen. Their boat was intercepted on August 23.
Zhang Zhan (pictured) was detained by police in May on suspicion of 'picking quarrels and provoking trouble'. She had travelled to Wuhan to report about the coronavirus outbreak there
The coronavirus was first detected in the city of 11million in central China. Mask-donning resident are pictured wait for medical attention at Wuhan Red Cross Hospital on January 2
Ms Zhang was believed to be the fourth Chinese independent reporter to have vanished from the public sight after posting reports from Wuhan, the former epicentre of the global health crisis.
Human rights campaigners are urging the Chinese government to release Ms Zhang.
A New York-based human rights organisation told MailOnline that Ms Zhang was being punished 'for doing exactly what the world desperately needed: reporting on the coronavirus from Wuhan'.
Home to some 11million people, the Chinese provincial capital caught international attention last December when the coronavirus first broke out there before spreading around the globe, killing at least 1,317,000 people so far.
According to Weiquan Net, a Chinese website which publishes updates about activists, Ms Zhang's persecution documents were released by the People's Procuratorate of Pudong New District of Shanghai on September 15.
One video published by Ms Zhang on YouTube purports to show the ER department of the Hubei Provincial People's Hospital overrun by patients who had to sleep in the corridor
In another clip, Ms Zhang alleged that one crematorium in the former epicentre was working in the middle of the night in mid-February, thought to be burning the bodies of COVID-19 victims
One of the official files accused Ms Zhang of 'maliciously hyping the epidemic of the novel coronavirus pneumonia in Wuhan' through popular Chinese messaging app WeChat, as well as Twitter and YouTube.
The prosecutor claimed that Ms Zhang had spread 'a large amount of false information' through text and videos and accepted interviews with foreign media outlets.
The other document suggested the judge should sentence Ms Zhang to a maximum of five years in jail for 'picking quarrels and provoking trouble'.
'Picking quarrels and provoking trouble' is a vaguely defined charge often used by Chinese authorities to target activists and dissidents, which carries a prison sentence of up to five years.
In another video series, Ms Zhang said she wanted to visit the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which has been accused of being the origin of the coronavirus. The institute was surrounded by high-voltage electric fences and run by the military, Ms Zhang said while filming its exterior
China has repeatedly denied the allegations put against the Wuhan virus institute (pictured). Beijing insists that the WHO found no evidence that the novel coronavirus was man-made
Radio Free Asia reported last Thursday that Ms Zhang had been on a hunger strike since June to protest against her arrest.
Citing a lawyer who had spoken to Ms Zhang's mother, the report stated that one of Ms Zhang's lawyers had dropped out of the case - a likely result of the government's pressure. Ms Zhang had only one lawyer left, the article claimed.
Ms Zhang lived in Shanghai before being arrested for her coronavirus reports.
Originally from the north-western province of Shaanxi, she had been critical of the Communist Party before the pandemic.
Last year, she was detained by the police, also on suspicion of 'picking quarrels and provoking trouble', after showing her support to pro-democracy Hong Kong protesters, according to a previous report.
It is said the independent journalist arrived in Wuhan around February 1 to report on the coronavirus outbreak.
The 37-year-old former lawyer has been formally indicted by public prosecutors of Shanghai for allegedly spreading false information, according to court papers circulating online
Wuhan caught international attention last December when the coronavirus first broke out there before spreading around the globe, killing at least 1,317,000 people so far. Pictured, patients infected with COVID-19 are seen at a makeshift hospital in Wuhan on February
According to Ms Zhang's YouTube channel, she visited some of the most sensitive places in Wuhan at the height of the city's COVID-19 outbreak, including the Wuhan Institute of Virology, crematoriums and hospitals.
In one clip uploaded on February 25, one man told Ms Zhang that he had just seen a crematorium van transporting corpses from Wuhan Wuchang Hospital. 'It's too scary,' the man is heard saying while standing outside the medical facility.
In five videos released the next day, she appeared to film the exterior of the tightly guarded Wuhan Institute of Virology, which was at the centre of startling theories that the virus escaped from there. The institute was surrounded by high-voltage electric fences and run by the military, Ms Zhang claimed.
She also recorded how one crematorium was allegedly working overnight in mid-February, thought to be burning the bodies of COVID-19 victims.
In addition, the Hubei Provincial People's Hospital seemed to be packed with patients on March 1 when official figures claimed that the number of daily infections had dropped sharply.
Ms Zhang's supporters have hailed her for revealing 'the truth' of the coronavirus outbreak
Ms Zhang's supporters have hailed her for revealing 'the truth' of the epidemic.
One person wrote on YouTube: 'You are a brave woman. [You] are risking your life to report news for our web users. Thank you.'
Another one said on the platform: 'Thank you, sister, you are a true hero.'
One of her followers told Radio Free Asia in September: 'Zhang Zhan risked her life to go to infection area Wuhan to reveal the truth of Wuhan's epidemic. Such a brave citizen journalist was arrested.'
Human Rights Watch, a US-based human rights group, condemned the Chinese authorities' treatment of Ms Zhang.
Wang Yaqiu, a China researcher at the organisation, told MailOnline: 'Zhang Zhan is being punished for doing exactly what the world desperately needed: reporting on the coronavirus from Wuhan.
'The detention of Zhan only reveals how confident Beijing actually is about its "success" in containing Covid-19.
'Governments around the world should press Beijing to release Zhang and other wrongfully detained activists and citizen journalists immediately.'
It is alleged that Ms Zhang was 'forced to disappear' by authorities in Wuhan on May 14 and formally arrested in Shanghai on June 19.
'I'm very worried about her health and the detention conditions, and her mother is heartbroken,' Ms Zhang's 63-year-old father told South China Morning Post in June.
'We don't have any connections or money to get her out – we're in an utterly powerless situation.'
Chen, 34, who went to Wuhan to report about the coronavirus outbreak independently, disappeared while reporting in Wuhan on February 6. His friend said he was being held under 'supervised surveillance at designated residence' in the eastern Chinese city Qingdao
Fang Bin (pictured), a Wuhan resident, went missing on February 9 after releasing a series of videos, including one showing piles of bodies being loaded into a bus (below)
Before Ms Zhang, three other citizen journalists had vanished for publishing reports about Wuhan's epidemic on international social media outlets.
Chen Qiushi, 34, was last heard from on February 6 when he was reporting about the virus in Wuhan. Nearly eight months after his disappearance, Mr Chen's close friend reportedly revealed last month that he was being held under 'supervised surveillance at designated residence' in the eastern Chinese city Qingdao.
Fang Bin, a businessman, also disappeared in early February and is believed to have been taken into state custody.
Li Zehua, a 25-year-old former state TV journalist, disappeared in late February and re-appeared in late April.
Li Zehua (pictured) vanished on February 26 before re-appearing at the end of April. Li was likely targeted by secret police after visiting the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a report said
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