The unjust death sentence of the teenager who went to the police

Huugjilt, 18, is a tobacco factory worker in Hohhot city, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. On the evening of April 9, 1996, he went to buy gum after dinner because he was afraid that others would smell the alcohol.

On the way back to the factory, as he passed the public restroom of the wool factory dormitory, Huugjilt heard a woman’s screams. Guessing something was wrong, Huugjilt rushed to call his friend Yan Feng to come in and see what happened.

Two people standing outside the women’s restroom, called out twice but no one answered. Under the persuasion of Huugjilt, the two decided to go in, using lighters to light it up, and saw a girl with her lower half exposed lying against a low wall.

The two boys panicked and ran away. Out of the alley, seeing the security guard at the intersection, Huugjilt wanted to go to the police, but Yanfeng was afraid of getting into trouble, so he pushed it away. Huugjilt told you to go back and report the incident to the factory manager, and I went to the police station to report the murder, and then brought them to the scene.

More than 10 pm that day, the police took both Huugjilt and Yanfeng to the station to take statements. The next morning, only Yan Feng was allowed to return. Phong said he heard Huugjilt’s screams and the shifting of tables and chairs in your interrogation room. Once at the post to record additional statements, Phong found Huugjilt handcuffed to the heater through the door gap.

48 hours after being taken into custody, police told Huugjilt’s mother that “her son pleaded guilty”.

On May 23, Huugjilt was charged with rape and attempted murder.

The prosecution accused Huugjilt of sneaking into the women’s restroom, controlling the 25-year-old girl to commit depraved acts, causing the victim to die of asphyxiation. Huugjilt then ran back to the factory, deliberately dragged Phong to the women’s restroom to discover the body, pretending to call the police.

The police provided evidence that the blood between Huugjilt’s fingernails matched the blood sample from the scratch on the victim’s throat.

Huugjilt’s defense lawyer initially defended the defendant’s innocence, but ultimately asked for leniency on the grounds that he “sincerely confessed his guilt, being an ethnic minority and being young”.

After a brief deliberation, the court sentenced Huugjilt to death. Huugjilt and his family appealed. On June 5, the appellate court ruled to uphold the first-instance judgment.

On June 10, 1996, the 62nd day after the incident, Huugjilt was executed by shooting.

Since then, Huugjilt’s parents, brother and younger brother have been shunned, not daring to raise their heads under the derision of those around them.

Believing that their child was wronged but without evidence, Huugjilt’s parents just wanted to find the real killer. For nearly 10 years, they recorded and collected all the news related to rape and murder cases on newspapers and television.

On October 23, 2005, Trieu Chi Hong was arrested in Hohhot city after committing 21 crimes, raping and killing 10 women. During interrogation, Hong confessed to being the culprit of the case on the evening of April 9, 1996. He detailed his criminal history and said this was the second victim he killed.

On October 30, 2005, Hong led the police to the original crime scene. Although the toilet was demolished to build a high-rise building, Hong still found the exact scene that year. Rumors that Huugjilt might have been killed unjustly began to spread.

However, when inquired with local police units, the family received no response. They decided to file a lawsuit, but after reviewing the file, no lawyer dared to accept it because it was too difficult to turn the case over. They were “tricked” to go to the media and were introduced to Tang Ke, a political and legal correspondent for Xinhua in Inner Mongolia.

After investigating from many sources, on November 23, Thang Ke wrote an article reflecting the incident, attracting the attention of the Inner Mongolia Political and Legal Committee. An investigation team established in March 2006 concluded that Huugjilt’s case was indeed unjust.

At the end of October 2006, Trieu Chi Hong’s case was suddenly brought to trial without publicity. The prosecution only prosecuted 9/10 murder cases, ignoring the case on the evening of April 9, 1994. Hong pointed out the issue in court, after which the trial was adjourned.

In 2007, Thang Ke contributed to promoting the re-investigation of the Huugjilt case with three in-depth articles. On December 20, 2007, Hong filed a “reparation for life” application from the prison to the People’s Procuracy of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, expressing that he did not want to die in regret, and wanted to return the innocence to the wronged person. After obtaining a copy from the warden, Thang Ke immediately handed over the application verbatim, receiving the attention of the Central Committee and the Supreme People’s Court.

In 2008, due to a change in leadership in the autonomous region, the Huugjilt case fell into “no one touched”.

On May 5, 2011, Thang Ke and a young reporter wrote an article reflecting the review of Huugjilt’s unjust case that had been stuck for 6 years. The High People’s Court of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region set up a team of five judges to participate in the re-investigation of the case.

In early 2013, the court concluded that there was not enough evidence in Huugjilt’s original sentence.

On December 15, 2014, in a press conference after the retrial, the court declared that the Huugjilt case was unclear and there was not enough evidence to charge. The reason is that the testimony about the criminal tricks did not match the autopsy report; evidence of matching blood groups is not sufficient to conclude a crime; Huugjilt’s confession is unstable and contradicts other evidence.

The court announced the annulment of the 1996 ruling that Huugjilt was innocent. The deputy chief justice of the High People’s Court on behalf of the agency apologized to Huugjilt’s parents and compensated more than two million yuan according to the law. 27 people involved in the unjust case were prosecuted for responsibility.

On July 2, 2019, Hong received two death sentences for intentional murder and rape, executed on July 30, 2019.

Tue Anh (Follow Sina, 163)