Draft law better protects rights of detainees

The latest draft of the supervision law applying to public servants has introduced new measures to protect the rights of graft suspects, such as informing family and employers of detainees within 24 hours of detention.

Exceptions can only be made when there is danger of collusion, evidence or witness tampering or other forms of obstruction to the investigation, according to the draft submitted to the top legislature for second review on Friday.

Compared with the first draft submitted to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress in June, the latest version also narrows the application of "measures of technical investigation", which could include monitoring and surveillance, to suspected "major graft cases" instead of the previous "major cases of graft and dereliction of duty".