Zhang Zhan, a Chinese citizen journalist and a former lawyer who live-streamed her reporting from Wuhan as the Covid-19 outbreak started, has been given a four-year jail term by a Shanghai court, AFP reported on Monday.
Zhan’s reporting had caught the attention of authorities after her essays and stories were widely shared on social media platforms in February. Zhang who has been in custody since May was convicted for allegedly "picking quarrels and provoking trouble” in the course of her reporting the initially days of the pandemic outbreak.
"Zhang Zhan looked devastated when the sentence was announced," Ren Quanniu, one of Zhang's defence lawyers, told reporters confirming the four-year jail term outside Shanghai Pudong New District People's Court on Monday morning.
37-year-old Zhang has also been on a hunger strike since June and has been force-fed via a nasal tube. The sentencing has heightened the concerns about her health.
"She said when I visited her (last week): 'If they give me a heavy sentence then I will refuse food until the very end.'... She thinks she will die in prison," Ren said before the trial, as per the AFP report.
Eight other whistleblowers shedding light on the Covid outbreak in Wuhan have been punished by the Chinese authorities in the course of the year.
The trial comes just weeks before an international team of World Health Organization experts are expected to arrive in China to investigate the origins of Covid-19.
