After 18 years, executed man found not guilty

A man who was executed in 1996 for raping and murdering a woman in a public toilet in Hohhot on April 9, 1996, has been found not guilty by Inner Mongolia Higher People's Court, according to CCTV.

Zhao Jianping, vice president of the higher court, expressed profound apology for the mistake made in sentencing him, while delivering the retrial verdict to Hugjiltu's parents at their home on Monday morning. The court also gave 30,000 yuan ($4,500) in compensation to the family, and pledged further compensastion.

The lawyer representing Hugjiltu said Saturday that a process will be initiated to ask for State compensation once his client is exonerated.

The presiding judge at the Inner Mongolia Higher People's Court in Bobatu ordered a retrial on Nov 20 in absentia notice to the parents of Hugjiltu.

Hugjiltu, who was 18 at the time, was sentenced to death and executed in June 1996.

However, since his sentence, another alleged serial rapist and killer, Zhao Zhihong, confessed to the murder after he was arrested in 2005.

The court will hold a press conference Monday to announce the verdict, the statement said.

"I am sure that the case was wrongly judged," said Miao Li, the lawyer representing Hugjiltu's family. She said by reviewing files she found no evidence supporting that Hugjiltu raped and murdered the woman. "According to the principle of presumption of innocence, the exoneration is not out of question."

She added that if the man was announced innocent the family would initiate the process immediately, to find out the policemen, prosecutors and judges who are to blame for the wrongly executed case, as well as asking for State compensation according to the State Compensation Law.