Zhou Ze, a Chinese lawyer, was suspended from practicing law for one year on Jan. 7 after the authorities published online information about the Hefei Public Security Bureau extracting confessions under torture.
The Beijing Chaoyang District Judicial Bureau issued a notice of administrative punishment hearing to Zhou Ze on Dec. 21 last year, proposing to suspend him from practicing law for one year.
Comprehensive international media news on Jan. 7, Zhou Ze said he would file a lawsuit against the authorities’ decision.
According to the Beijing Chaoyang Judicial Bureau, Zhou sent a message on Weibo as a defense attorney in the Lv Xiansan case, publicly reporting that the Hefei Public Security Bureau had extracted a confession under torture in the Lv Xiansan case, and pointing out that the case was being handled in violation of the law, saying it was “improperly influencing the handling of the case in accordance with the law.
When the news of the punishment came out, a number of Chinese legal professionals posted articles in solidarity with Zhou Ze, saying that this example will have a significant impact on the boundary of lawyers’ speech and will make them more silent.
In an article published on the same day by several WeChat media outlets, Zhou Ze-who, in addition to thanking the lawyers who represented him at the hearing-also noted that “many of my fellow lawyers who forwarded relevant information and comments were pressured to delete them by the judicial administrations in different regions and told them not to support me.
Zhou Ze used to be a journalist and legal scholar, and later became a full-time lawyer. In 2006, he was selected as the “Person of the Year for the Public Interest” by the magazine “Southwind Window” and the “Top Ten Legal Figures” by People’s Daily Online, Xinhua Online, China Court Online and CCTV International.
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