China: man who confessed to a murder while innocent man was wrongly executed is still awaiting trial

BEIJING — A man who confessed to a murder for which an innocent man was wrongly executed is still awaiting trial in China, four years after admitting his guilt, a report said Wednesday.

Hugejiletu was put to death in June 1996 for the rape and murder of a woman in the toilet of a textile factory in Hohhot, capital of the northern region of Inner Mongolia, the Beijing News reported.

Hugejiletu, who had reported the case to police, had maintained he was innocent despite attempts to get him to confess.

In October 2005, a man named Zhao Zhihong was arrested by police and confessed to killing 10 people in Inner Mongolia, including the woman murdered in the factory, the state-run newspaper said.

However, nearly four years later Zhao remains in detention and has not been brought to trial despite efforts by Hugejiletu's parents to clear their son's name, it said.

In 2006, the local judicial department set up a special investigation group to review the case but it has not made any progress, the paper said.

"Every time they told me that they sympathised with my son and my son's death was unjust. But they never gave us any hope," Hugejiletu's parents were quoted as saying after a second visit to the regional high court.

The paper said Yang Chengxun and Wu Guoxing, criminal investigators with the ministry of public security, recently told reporters: "Hugejiletu's case is wrong, Zhao Zhihong must be the real murderer."

The case only came to national attention after being reported by local press in Inner Mongolia.

China has slowly been reforming its death penalty system after acknowledging several miscarriages of justice.

At the beginning of 2007, the Supreme People's Court began reviewing every death penalty case rather than allowing lower courts to issue the final judgement -- a move that China says has led to fewer executions.

In 2008, more than 1,700 people were put to death in China, according to Amnesty International. China does not publish data on executions, and rights groups say the number could be much higher.

Source: Associated Press, August 5, 2009

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