Innocent man cleared of murder 21 years after he was convicted and jailed in China
Judge apologises after a court overturns Chen Man’s murder conviction and suspended death sentence relating to 1994 killing of woman in Hainan
A man who served 21 years for a murder he did not commit walked out of prison a free man on Monday after he was formally cleared by a Zhejiang court.
The Zhejiang Higher People’s Court ruled there was insufficient evidence to warrant the murder conviction and suspended death sentence handed down to Chen Man, 53, in 1994 over the death of a woman in Hainan, according to a statement on the court’s social media account.
Chen was released from Meilan Prison in Haikou into the arms of his brother and sister-in-law. Hours after his release, he was on a plane to his hometown in Sichuan to spend the Lunar New Year with his parents.
Chen’s case is the wrongful conviction to be overturned in the past three years as Beijing pushes ahead with legal reforms to “rule the country by law”.
READ MORE: Chinese man, falsely jailed for 20 years for murder, ‘refused to confess under torture’
In a prison courtroom, Hainan’s top judge, Fu Qin, bowed to Chen in apology on behalf of the court, which issued the death sentence 21 years ago, said Chen’s lawyer, Wang Wanqiong.