Zhang Zhan has left prison
Beijing time 22:16, Tuesday 21 May 2024
Today, we finally received confirmation that Zhang Zhan has been released from prison. However, she only has limited freedom.
In a short video recording provided by an intermediary, Zhang Zhan said in a soft voice that she was taken by police to her elder brother’s home in Shanghai at 5 pm on 13 May 2024.
She thanked everyone for their support while holding back her tears. Her last words were: “I really don’t know what to say.”
We cannot confirm where Zhang Zhan was when this video was recorded or who recorded it for her.
It seemed that she had regained some of the weight she had lost during her hunger strikes. But she was looking pale and tired, her eyes puffy.
According to a friend who spoke to her on WeChat, Zhang Zhan was able to get an account on the Chinese social media site earlier today. She told the friend that she was “very not free”. She also expressed worry to another friend that her guards may snatch her phone from her.
The fact that Zhang Zhan was finally able to “resurface” after 9 days of disappearance proves that the Chinese government does respond to pressure from the international society.
It is a relief to hear from Zhang Zhan again, but we remain concerned about her safety and wellbeing. There is a long way to go before she recovers fully from her jail ordeal. Like other former political prisoners, she is subject to intrusive government surveillance and harassment. She is at high risk of being “disappeared” or arrested again.
We would like to extend our heartfelt gratitude to all who have spoken up for or supported Zhang Zhan in other ways over the last four years. Let’s continue to “seek the truth at all costs”. Let’s work towards the day when those who arbitrarily jailed Zhang Zhan are held accountable.
Jane Wang
Free Zhang Zhan campaign
No news about Zhang Zhan’s release
Beijing time 19:30, Monday 13 May 2024
So far, we have not received any confirmation that Zhang Zhan has left the prison and is home with her family.
We understand that Zhang Zhan’s family have been under enormous pressure and warned severely not to give media interviews. Friends’ calls have also been left without answers. At least one Shanghai-based activist has been summoned by police for talking about getting Zhang Zhan from prison on 13 May with her mother. A Henan-based activist has been intercepted at a train station en route to Shanghai; she wanted to greet Zhang Zhan or at least show solidarity with her outside Shanghai Women’s Prison. See this report by Civil Rights and Livelihood Watch for more details.
These are extremely worrying signs. If Zhang Zhan faces the same situation as her fellow rights activist Chen Jianfang (who has been placed under house arrest by Shanghai authorities since October 2023, when she was released from prison), she will have little chance of getting urgently needed, long-overdue medical treatment and recuperation.
It is totally unacceptable that the Chinese government subject many human rights defenders and their families to this kind of cruelty. Even after their release from prison, they are still deprived of their basic rights. For some, it’s like they’ve been given a life sentence.
Zhang Zhan should have regained her freedom. We should have heard from her or her family by now. Instead, we are left wondering where she is, how she is doing physically and mentally, what’s happened to her family, and what the future holds for her: A prisoner in her own home (like Chen Jianfang)? Detention in a medical facility without access to her family (like Hubei-based activist Yin Xu’an)? Forced disappearance (like human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng)?
The silence speaks volumes. We call on the international society to hold the Chinese Communist regime accountable for its horrendous practice of ‘soft detention’ or ‘non-release release’ of former political prisoners.
Jane Wang
Free Zhang Zhan campaign
