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February 2, 2016

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27 punished over 18-year-old’s execution

Source: Xinhua/Shanghai Daily | February 2, 2016, Tuesday | Print Edition

THE wrongful conviction, 20 years ago, of an 18-year-old man has led to the punishment of 27 officials, authorities in north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region said in a statement released on Sunday night.

Feng Zhiming, one of the officials responsible for the wrongful conviction of Huugjilt, is also suspected of job-related crimes and is subject to further investigation, according to the statement.

Feng, formerly deputy chief of the Xincheng District branch of the public security bureau in Hohhot, the regional capital, may face criminal charges, it said.

The other 26 officials received administrative penalties including admonitions and record of demerits.

Eleven were former police officers with Hohhot’s public security bureau and its Xincheng branch, including Wang Zhi, the former bureau chief.

Seven were former officials with the people’s procuratorate of Hohhot, including Wen Da, former chief procurator.

Five were former officials with the region’s higher people’s court, and three were from the intermediate people’s court in Hohhot.

Huugjilt’s wrongful conviction was one of the most notorious cases of judicial injustice in China. The teenager was declared guilty of raping and then murdering a woman in a public toilet in 1996. He was posthumously acquitted of the crimes in December 2014.

The actual culprit, Zhao Zhihong, was apprehended in 2005 and sentenced to death last year.

Yesterday, Huugjilt’s parents said they were “trembling with anger” over the lenient penalties handed out to the officials involved.

Li Sanren and Shang Aiyun said they found the statement hard to accept.

“Despite a serious lack of evidence, they pushed an 18-year-old boy to death, step by step. But finally they just get administrative penalties,” they said on a statement published on their Weibo account.

In an interview with Beijing Youth Daily, Shang said: “When hearing the result, I was trembling with anger. Throughout, we never hoped to punish everyone. But at a minimum, those who tortured Huugjilt to get a false confession should bear their criminal responsibility.

“It’s such a significant case that a boy’s life was terminated at the age of 18,” she said. “Can it be over just by an admonition or a record of demerit?"

So far, not one government or judicial official had visited or apologized to them, she said.

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