Chinese serial killer guilty in wrongly convicted case

A Chinese court Monday sentenced a man to death for multiple crimes, including the murder and rape of a woman in 1996.

Zhao was apprehended in 2005 and confessed to a string of rape and murder cases, including one in a public toilet in Hohhot in 1996 that was pinned on 18-year-old teenager Huugjilt, Xinhua news agency reported.

Huugjilt was exonerated in December 2014, some 18 years after his execution.

Zhao Zhihong, 42, was tried on charges of murder, rape, robbery and larceny at Hohhot Intermediate People's Court in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

The court deprived Zhao of political rights for life, fined him 53,000 yuan ($8,464) and ordered him to pay 102,768 yuan in compensation to the victims.

Zhao first stood trial in late 2006 for raping and killing nine women and girls, seven other counts of rape, as well as robbery and larceny between 1996 and 2005.

His trial resumed Jan 5, more than eight years after his first trial.

According to the court verdict, Zhao committed 21 crimes between 1996 and 2005 in Hohhot and Ulanqab.

Besides a series of murders that left 10 people dead, it is alleged he raped a total of 13 women and girls in the period.

Zhao was also convicted of using violence or threats to appropriate material property worth 31,400 yuan, and stealing a further 3,500 yuan in several burglary cases.

The court said Zhao's motives were despicable, his measures cruel and the consequences serious, thus, it refused to give Zhao a lenient punishment despite him confessing to some of the crimes.

People from various walks of life, including Huugjilt's parents, attended the court session.

Huugjilt, a factory worker, was found guilty of raping and killing a woman in a public toilet in Hohhot and was executed 61 days after the murder.

On Dec 15, 2014, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Regional Higher People's Court exonerated Huugjilt, ruling that he was not guilty of rape and murder, as the facts of his case were unclear and evidence was inadequate.

Huugjilt's parents were awarded state compensation of more than two million yuan after their son's acquittal.