Sources say Zhang is at risk of further prosecution, just 3 months after her release from prison.

(Reuters)

Whistleblowing citizen journalist Zhang Zhan has been re-detained, three months after her release following a four-year jail term for reporting from the front lines of the emerging COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan, her brother told RFA Mandarin.

“All I know is that she’s in the detention center right now,” Zhang’s brother Zhang Ju said. “I don’t know many other details; nobody contacted me when she went in.”

“They may have contacted my father or mother, but they didn’t tell me; I don’t know why she’s been taken there on this occasion,” he said.

Repeated calls to Zhang’s parents rang unanswered on Sept. 5. U.K.-based rights activist Wang Jianhong, who heads the Zhang Zhan Concern Group, said the family is under pressure from the authorities not to speak to anyone about their daughter’s case.

“There haven’t been any updates in the past few days because it’s inconvenient for the family to speak out – their situation is very difficult,” Wang said. “The news that she is in the detention center has been confirmed and made public.”

“There has been no official notification that she has been criminally detained, but given that she’s being held in a regular detention center for eight days, it’s probably criminal rather than administrative detention,” Wang said, calling on Washington to raise Zhang’s detention with the Chinese authorities “through diplomatic channels.”

Shanghai-based...

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