No appeal for China’s jailed coronavirus citizen journalist Zhang Zhan
- The 37-year-old former lawyer has decided not to contest her four-year sentence, imposed for reports from virus-hit Wuhan
- Sources say she was persuaded by detention centre staff one day after a visit from her legal team
The decision brought Zhang’s case to a close this week, after the 37-year-old former lawyer was found guilty by Shanghai Pudong New Area People’s Court at the end of last month. She was convicted for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”, a broadly defined offence often used by police to stifle dissent.
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Chinese citizen journalist Zhang Zhan sentenced to four years in jail for Wuhan coronavirus reports
According to sources familiar with her case, Zhang, who is being held at a detention centre in Pudong, met her lawyers last Wednesday. She made the decision a day later, after centre staff persuaded her not to appeal.
“She is a Christian. [She understands an] appeal will only aggravate the problem and fuel hostility. She saw no point of appealing,” one of the sources said. “I think she has given up fighting for her health, her life and her legal rights entirely. In her view, her arrest, indictment and conviction were all against the law.”
The source noted that Zhang, who pleaded not guilty, did not really defend herself during the trial, which she attended in a wheelchair because of her poor health.
Zhang began to refuse food soon after her arrest in May last year in protest, and was force-fed during her detention through a nasal tube, which she was physically restrained from removing.