Zhou expresses self-reproach for wrongful convictions

China's Chief Justice Zhou Qiang on Thursday expressed self-reproach for wrongful convictions and urged fellow judges to learn from them.

"We deeply reproach ourselves for letting wrongful convictions happen. Courts of all levels should learn a serious lesson from these cases," said Zhou, when delivering the work report of the Supreme People's Court (SPC) to the national legislature at the ongoing annual session.

The SPC will improve the mechanism to effectively prevent and correct wrongful convictions, he said.

In 2014, courts nationwide reheard 1,317 cases and corrected a number of wrongful ones, according to Zhou's report.

One of the high-profile wrongful convictions was a rape-murder case in 1996 by an Inner Mongolian court, in which an 18-year-old man named Huugjilt was convicted and executed. And 18 years later in December 2014, he was acquitted of the crimes.

The higher court of Inner Mongolia is investigating those responsible for Huugjilt's case and will hold them accountable, Zhou said.

Source: Xinhua