Mainland China lawyer Zhou Ze has been barred from practicing for one year over his posting evidence on social media purportedly showing his client – another lawyer – being tortured to extract a confession.

Zhou was suspended due to “conduct improperly affecting the handling of cases according to law,” according to a Dec. 21 notice from the Beijing Chaoyang Justice Bureau.

The apparent reprisal by authorities – though not unexpected – should raise concerns for all lawyers in mainland China, Zhou said, adding that he felt puzzled by the decision. In an interview with Apple Daily on Wednesday, Zhou said that over the past 20 years, he had handled every case professionally and had done his best to uphold litigants’ lawful rights and the proper implementation of the law.

Zhou’s client, Lu Xiansan, was sentenced by Hefei Intermediate People’s Court to 12 years imprisonment for fraud, a sentence that was reduced last month to three years by the Anhui Higher People’s Court.

The alleged torture by the Hefei public security bureau was not only described in testimony by the defendant, but captured in video evidence, Zhou said. But that didn’t prevent the bureau from filing a complaint asking that Zhou be “dealt with seriously.”

Zhou told Apple Daily that he was worried that his suspension would deter fellow lawyers from making remarks critical of the authorities, and that the chilling effect would aggravate abuse of power by the public security bureau and judicial organs.

There was widespread criticism of the penalty, with writers and journalists helped by Zhou in the past taking to social media to express their support. Some netizens sarcastically asked whether the incident had solved the problem of extracting confessions by torture, or whether it had solved the problem of lawyers exposing the extraction of confessions by torture.

Zhou told Apple Daily that being forced to stop practicing for a year would not stop him from fighting for his rights and interests according to the law.

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