BEIJING:
In a rare move, a Chinese court has admitted it had wrongly executed a
teenager on the charge of rape and murder 18 years back. The young man
had actually tried to save the raped woman before she was killed by the
rapist.
Declaring the young man, Huugjilt, innocent, the higher
court in Inner Mongolia apologized to his parents. The court also
granted the parents compensation equal to $4,800.
In typical Chinese sytle swift justice, the court had found Huugjilt guilty of rape and murder in April 1996, and executed him two months later. He was 18 years old at that time.
The retrial showed that Huugjilt had tried to help save the woman after hearing her cry out from a public toilet. He reported the crime to police, the official Xinhua news agency said.
The case took a surprising turn many years later when an alleged serial rapist and killer, Zhao Zhihong, confessed to the murder in 2005.
The judge in the court in Hohhot bowed to Huugjilt's tearful parents.
"The Inner Mongolia Higher People's Court finds Huugjilt's original guilty verdict ... is not consistent with the facts and there is insufficient evidence," the court said in a statement. "Huugjilt is found not guilty," it said. Prosecutors and local officials said they had acted under pressure to show results during an anti-crime campaign being run by the government at that time.
This is a rare occasion when a court has not just reversed an earlier verdict of death sentence but also apologized. This follows another case in Anhui province last year, when a court found a man not guilty after serving 17 years of a life sentence for killing his wife.
In typical Chinese sytle swift justice, the court had found Huugjilt guilty of rape and murder in April 1996, and executed him two months later. He was 18 years old at that time.
The retrial showed that Huugjilt had tried to help save the woman after hearing her cry out from a public toilet. He reported the crime to police, the official Xinhua news agency said.
The case took a surprising turn many years later when an alleged serial rapist and killer, Zhao Zhihong, confessed to the murder in 2005.
The judge in the court in Hohhot bowed to Huugjilt's tearful parents.
"The Inner Mongolia Higher People's Court finds Huugjilt's original guilty verdict ... is not consistent with the facts and there is insufficient evidence," the court said in a statement. "Huugjilt is found not guilty," it said. Prosecutors and local officials said they had acted under pressure to show results during an anti-crime campaign being run by the government at that time.
This is a rare occasion when a court has not just reversed an earlier verdict of death sentence but also apologized. This follows another case in Anhui province last year, when a court found a man not guilty after serving 17 years of a life sentence for killing his wife.
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