Photos: Anguish as teenager sentenced to death for murder 18 years ago is declared innocent

In a sad turn of events, the family of a Chinese
teenager executed after being convicted of
murder and rape 18 years ago, howled in anguish
as he was declared innocent by a court today…
According to AP,Hugjiltu was just 18 when he was
found guilty of raping and murdering a woman
in Hohhot, in 1996 and was put to death just 61
days after the woman was murdered.
In Hugjiltu’s case, authorities interrogated the
teenager for 48 hours, after which he confessed
to having raped and choked the woman in the
toilet of a textile factory
After he was executed in June 1996, Hugjiltu’s
family tried for nearly two decades to prove his
innocence.But doubt was cast on the verdict
when another man confessed to the crime in
2005, leading to the case being reopened last
month…
Finally it was found Hugjiltu’s confession did not
match the autopsy report, was inconsistent with
‘other evidence’, and that DNA evidence presented
at the trial did not definitively connect him to the
crime.
After the court in the autonomous region of
northern China issued a statement today finding
Hugjiltu not guilty, the dead man’s mother,
father and brother burned a copy of the decision
on his grave in a highly charged protest.
As he delivered the papers Zhao Jianping, the
deputy president of the court, made a profound
apology for its mistake in sentencing the
teenager, also known as Qoysiletu, to death.After
Hugjiltu’s mother Shang Aiyun had to be dragged
from the teenager’s grave as she wailed in pain,
his brother Zhaoligetu told Sina.com
: ‘My mother wished him ‘rest in peace’ and
hoped he could reincarnate.’

Mr Jianping gave Hugjiltu’s parents compensation
of 30,000 yuan (£3,093), the official Xinhua News
Agency reported.
The money was a personal donation by the head
of the court, it added, rather than an official
payment by the institution.
Many on social media decried what they saw as
insufficient compensation for such a grave
miscarriage of justice, with one asking: ‘Is 30,000
yuan really enough to buy the life of a family
member?’