Man who filmed body bags in Wuhan released after three years

AFPDemonstration in Hong Kong for the release of Fang Bin in February 2020

NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 20:11

Fang Bin, the man who was one of the first to document the consequences of the corona outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan, has been released after three years in prison. This is reported by the BBC and Radio Free Asia.

In early 2020, Fang filmed how a hospital in his city became overcrowded. He also counted the body bags piled outside the hospital.

At that time there was hardly any official information in China about corona. Fang’s video, which he posted on YouTube, attracted a lot of attention at home and abroad. It is believed that the corona pandemic started in Wuhan.

Fang was arrested after uploading the video, but quickly released. After he posted a video criticizing the Chinese government about a week later, he was arrested again. He had been missing ever since.

Prison sentence

It is now revealed that Wang has been secretly sentenced to three years in prison. He was released last Sunday. He is in good health, sources tell the BBC.

Fang is not the only citizen journalist who covered the start of the corona pandemic and then disappeared. It also happened to Zhang Zhan, after she vlogged about the events. Zhang was sentenced to four years in prison.

China correspondent Sjoerd den Daas spoke with friends of Zhang in January 2021, almost a year after the arrest. The report also includes the fragment with the body bags, filmed by Fang: