A Chinese citizen journalist who was one of the earliest whistleblowers about the reality of COVID-19 was finally released from prison Sunday after his disappearance, according to reports.
Fang Bin, who released documentation about the initial COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, China, in early 2020, was released Sunday after serving a three-year prison sentence, according to the BBC. Fang was disappeared by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials in February of 2020 before being sentenced to three years after a secret trial in Wuhan, sources told the BBC.
Fang Bin: China Covid whistleblower returns home to Wuhan after jail https://t.co/fgDRUOPOWq
— BBC Asia (@BBCNewsAsia) May 2, 2023
Fang is reportedly back home in Wuhan with his family and is in good health. He was reportedly convicted for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” a charge often used to silence dissenters and whistleblowers in China, the outlet noted. The CCP used a variety of methods to censor information about COVID-19 during the early days of the pandemic.
The most viral videos Fang shared showed eight body bags within five minutes outside a COVID hospital, and another where he called for “All people revolt – hand the power of the government back to the people,” the BBC reported. He was detained after the first of those two but later released. He was later detained and sentenced after the second. (RELATED: ‘We Should Look At’ Declaring War If China Attacks Taiwan, Republican Rep. McCaul Says)
Another whistleblower, 39-year-old former lawyer Zhang Zhan, remains imprisoned by the CCP after being sentenced to four years in December of 2020, following her detainment in May of that year. She was convicted of the same offense after sharing videos from Wuhan, the outlet reported.