Covid-19: Beijing considers UN demand to release Chinese journalist "irresponsible"

China severely judged on Saturday the United Nations (UN) request to release Chinese journalist Zhang Zhan, imprisoned for filming the beginnings of the Covid-19 pandemic in Wuhan. The spokesperson for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Marta Hurtado, was concerned on Friday about the rapid deterioration of the health of the 38-year-old woman, her hunger strike in detention seriously threatening his life. In a statement, she called on the Chinese authorities to "

”. "

" and "

"

comments

», According to the Chinese delegation in Geneva.

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In February 2020, the former Shanghai lawyer went to Wuhan, in central China, to report on the situation there a few days after the quarantine of the metropolis of 11 million inhabitants.

His images of patients bedridden in an overcrowded hospital corridor had given a rare glimpse of the sanitary conditions in the city, plagued by the coronavirus.

Zhang Zhan was arrested in May 2020 and sentenced in December to four years in prison for "

" a charge commonly used to quell dissent.

She is now severely thin and "

" warned her brother, Zhang Ju, a few weeks ago on Twitter.

"

."

Besides Zhang Zhan, at least three other independent journalists, Chen Qiushi, Fang Bin and Li Zehua, have been taken into custody after covering the epidemic crisis in Wuhan.