Detained is not damned

At least four people have died in police custody in the past three months. The rise in the number of such deaths calls for tighter control on law enforcement agencies to ensure the rights of detained suspects are protected and police do not abuse their power while investigating criminal cases.

A detainee died in Yunnan province after reportedly hitting his head against a wall while playing hide-and-seek. A high school boy died of some unknown illness in Shaanxi province when police were questioning him. A man in Hebei province died apparently of pneumonia. The last to die was a 50-year-old man in Jiangxi province.

But family members of the four deceased have their own story to tell. They all claim to have seen injury marks - signs of beatings - on the bodies of the deceased.