COVID-19 patient who escaped Wuhan amid lockdown identified by media as ex-convict of corruption crime

Source:Global Times Published: 2020/2/27 23:57:11


Photo: Xinhua



A probe into a controversial case, where a newly released female inmate from Wuhan somehow arrived in Beijing despite strict lockdowns and was subsequently tested positive for the coronavirus, has yet to yield any concrete breakthrough as of Thursday. 

 However, more details regarding the identity of the mysterious patient has surfaced on Chinese social media.

 A Chengdu-based Hongxing News report on Thursday pointed out that the female patient, named Huang Dengying, was a cashier at the Xuan'en water resource bureau in Enshi, in Central China's Hubei Province, and was sentenced to 10 years on charges of corruption and embezzlement of state property.

According to Huang's lawyer, who is unnamed in the report, Huang served the first two years of her imprisonment in Enshi, and then moved to Wuhan women's prison. 

Huang's jail term was commuted by seven months in August 2019, according to a verdict document by the Wuhan intermediate court, and her term was officially terminated on February 17 this year. Huang allegedly left Wuhan after being released, and was picked up by family from Beijing.

Huang was found on Monday in a residential community in Dongcheng district. She arrived in Beijing from Wuhan on Saturday and underwent inspection immediately after her arrival, as she had been suffering intermittent fever and a sore throat since February 18 in Wuhan, said the Beijing Center for Diseases Prevention and Control (CDC) on Wednesday. 

She was later tested positive for COVID-19 and admitted into a designated hospital. 

Beijing CDC did not mention how the woman left Wuhan.

Hubei authorities launched a thorough investigation on Wednesday night to look into the matter, and the Beijing Party discipline inspection and supervisory authority followed suit on the same day.

A team led by the Ministry of Justice, the Supreme People's Procuratorate and Ministry of Public Security will also look into the incident, the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission of the Communist Party of China said in a news release on Thursday.

Huang's daughter, surnamed Qin, also broke her silence to the media on Thursday, saying she believed that the Ministry of Justice would give a fair investigation result, media reported.

Hubei Party chief Ying Yong stressed on Thursday that the prison system and detention houses in Hubei is by principle entry-only at this point.

Chen Bei, a Beijing government official also emphasized in a Thursday press conference that persons from Hubei are not permitted to return to Beijing, and people from other regions should first undergo a 14-day quarantine period after returning to Beijing.
 

 



Posted in: SOCIETY

blog comments powered by Disqus