Twenty seven Chinese officials have been "penalized" for illicitly executing a teenager two decades ago, according to state news agency Xinhua on Sunday.

In 1996, Hugjiltu, 18, was convicted and sentenced to death for allegedly raping and murdering a woman in a text factory toilet in Hohhot, the capital of Inner Mongolia in North China.

Like Us on Facebook

Finally, in 2014, Hugjiltu was acquitted after another man, identified as Zhao Zhihong, admitted the crime and was found guilty and put to death. 

"One of the blacklisted officials responsible for the wrongful conviction of Hugjilty, Feng Zhiming, was suspected of job-related crimes and was subject to further investigation," Xinhua quoted officials in a statement.

Feng Zheming is the former deputy chief in Hohhot's public security bureau. Xinhua reports that he might be facing execution. While the other 26 officials including police officers and court authorities will receive administrative punishment such as admonitions and record of demerit. 

Hugjiltu case depicts the lapses of the Communist Party-controlled legal system where absolution cases are extremely rare. According to an official statistics report, of the defendants in criminal cases, 99.93 percent are usually found guilty.

In an annual report of the Communist Party-controlled National People's Congress in 2013, Supreme People's Court head Zhou Qiang revealed that the Chinese courts imprisoned nearly 1.16 million people in 954,000 criminal cases heard. Of the number, only 825 people were dismissed in accordance with the human rights protection and illegal evidence exclusion policy.

Furthermore, forced/coerced confession, or obtaining a confession through the use of torture, duress or enhanced interrogation technique, remains widely used across China. Critics say this may result in regular miscarriage of justice.

Tagschina, execution, Community Party-controlled legal system, justice system, prisoners