Chinese journalist freed after nine months in detention

(AGI) Beijing, July 10 - The Chinese journalist Zhang Miao hasbeen freed after nine months in detention. She was detainedwhile covering the Occupy Hong Kong protest movement last yearfor the German weekly Die Zeit. She had gone to Beijing the dayafter the first student-led protests in Hong Kong. Sheannounced her own release on Friday, from the bus taking herhome. Her lawyer, Zhou Shifeng, has now been detained, however,according to her brother and a family friend. In January DieZeit's former China correspondent Angela Koeckritz published anarticle declaring that she was leaving the country due to heavypressure on her to do so. She had been accused of spying andhad received repeated warnings that her visa would not berenewed. Her decision to leave China was also motivated by adesire "not to complicate diplomatic efforts for the release"of Zhang. (AGI). .