China's Informants Lack Protection

On December 18, 2003, a contractor named Du entered a construction site in Qinyang County and was robbed by three unidentified men. The police never bothered to investigate the incident. However Wang Hao knew who committed the robbery.

The Informant

“The whole village knows who those three men are,” Wang Hao stated. The robbers were Wang Changzai, Wang Zhanwei, and Dong Liuzhu. According Wang Changzai’s testimony from the autumn of 2003, Wang Zhanwei got in touch with him to borrow money. Wang Zhanwei suggested robbing the boss of a power station construction site his relative worked at before salaries are handed out to the construction workers. The three men snuck into the construction site the night of December 18th and stole 125,000 yuan.

Wang Hao stated that in villages it is impossible to keep a secret. Everyone knew about the robbery, but no one was brave enough to report the crime, and three years have passed.

In July in 2007, Wang Hao’s brother and nephew had a dispute with Wang Changzai. Wang Hao decided to report Wang Chang’s criminal activity. He reported the whereabouts of the criminals who had committed the theft in 2003 to Qinyang County’s Public Security Bureau (PSB) chief. With the help of Wang Hao, the police tracked down and arrested Dong Liuzhu and sentenced him to 11 years in prison. Afterwards they arrested Wang Zhanwei and sentenced him to an indefinite detention. In July, the police located Wang Changzai in Dangchang County hospital where he was receiving treatment for his lung, punctured during his fight with Wang Hao’s nephew.

A police officer was sent to the hospital to guard Wang Changzai, but he managed to escape. On July 15, the PSB released a notice for Wang Chang’s capture over the internet, but failed to secure his capture. Wang Chang decided that it was Wang Haor who reported him to the police because of the argument he had with Wang Hao’s nephew.

On September 10, Wang Changzai and six accomplices tracked down Wang Hao. Wang Changzai held him at gunpoint and told him not to move or else he would kill him. The men beat Wanghao with wooden beams. Wang Changzai then chopped off Wang Hao’s hands with a kitchen knife. They then dropped him off in front of a hospital. They threw the wooden beams, guns, and Wang Hao’s hands into a river. Four days later one of Wan Hao’s hands was found, but it was too late to reattach it.

Aftermath

The police department dispatched forty police cars, and captured Wang Changzai four days later. On December 13, 2008, Wang Changzai was sentenced to death. The other six culprits were handed prison sentences of over ten years. The Dancheng County Court ordered Wang Changzai to pay 680,000 yuan to Wang Hao, but Wang Changzai was executed by a firing squad in February before he could come up with the money.

On September 3, Dancheng County Court Judge Fang Jinyang announced that Wang Chang’s remaining assets were only worth about 200,000 yuan. Fang Jinyang said, if the criminal does not have the assets he owes at the time of his execution, then the court may provide a settlement for the victim who is owed his money, but the settlement would not surpass 3000 yuan. Fang Jinyang stated that there were no safeguards for victims in China’s law books. After many deliberations, the Qinyang City PSB provided Wang Hao with 410,000 yuan worth of compensation.

Inadequate Protection

Wang Haorang believes that the measures taken by the Qinyang PSB were inadequate and that it was the PSB’s fault that Wang Changzai had his revenge. He requested that the Qinyang PSB look into the failure of their police force. After his escape 8 officers received disciplinary action for their failure. Wang Hao believes the punishment the officers received was not enough; he continues to go through legal channels to seek justice.

This year the Henan Province Politics and Law Discipline Committee have begun to investigate this case, but they have yet to come up with a verdict. Qinyang PSB Chief Deng Yusheng believes that regulations regarding the protection of informants are too abstract. Wang Haorang is not the only person to have been harmed from this lack of protection.

Renmin University Law School professor He Jiahong stated on September 7, China’s current system of protecting informants is still not sound and lacks a legal foundation. We still do not have the man power, financial resources, or system to protect informants or witnesses. There are no laws guiding judicial authorities as to what measures they should adopt to do so.

The Qinyang PSB stated that they submitted a report to the Henan Province Politics and Law Committee which they prepared with Dancheng County with the intent of helping provide people like Wang Hao a better system of safeguards.

This article was edited by Ruoji Tang

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Beijing News: 举报抢劫疑犯双手被砍扔掉