Man finally on trial for 1996 murder that saw innocent 18-year-old executed in China
Prosecutors press murder charges again, 18 years after innocent man executed for crime
A man faced court for murder yesterday - more than nine years after confessing to the killing for which an innocent young man was executed.
Zhao Zhihong, 42, was charged with murder, rape and robbery in the Intermediate People's Court of Hohhot , Inner Mongolia , mainland media reported.
Zhao's case attracted widespread interest after he confessed to 17 crimes, including the murder that led to the execution of Huugjilt, an 18-year-old man who was found guilty of the rape and murder of a woman in a public toilet in Hohhot on April 9, 1996. Huugjilt was sentenced to death and executed 61 days after the woman's body was found.
Prosecutors now accuse Zhao of more than 20 crimes, including the rape and murder of several women between 1996 and 2005 in Hohhot and Ulanqab . The youngest victim was aged 12, Xinhua said.
Yesterday's session was open to the public in the morning but the rape and murder charges were heard in closed session in the afternoon.
Huugjilt's parents, who spent 18 years trying to clear their son's name and insisted that he only confessed under duress during interrogation, appeared in the court yesterday morning for about half an hour, the Legal Evening News reported.