"Ms Zhang believes she is being persecuted for exercising her freedom of speech," he had said before the trial. State media have credited success in reining in the virus to the leadership of President Xi Jinping. A former lawyer, Zhang arrived in Wuhan on Feb. 1 from her home in Shanghai. Her lawyers told the court that police strapped her hands and force-fed her with a tube. Requests to the court to release Zhang on bail before the trial and livestream the trial went ignored, her lawyer said.

Source: bd News24 December 28, 2020 06:33 UTC