Informants need legal protection

Some unknown people attacked and seriously wounded a semi-professional police informer in Huizhou, Guangdong province, recently. The victim had been passing on information on the nexus among underworld operators, government officials and businesspeople to local security bureau officials. Although the identity of the assailants is not known, people suspect that he was injured in a "revenge" attack. If true, this highlights the dangers that police informants face, says an article in Guangzhou Daily. Excerpts:

There is no specific law to protect police informants. Of course, there are scattered clauses in the Criminal Law and the Criminal Procedure Law to provide protection to informants, but the details are too sketchy for security bureau officials to take measures to keep informers out of harms' way.