A judge from Inner Mongolia Higher People's Court, right, hands a verdict that acquitted Huugjilt of murdering and raping a woman, to his parents at their home in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, Monday. [Photo by Wang Wei/ Asianewsphoto]

A man sentenced to death and executed in a controversial 1996 rape and murder case was acquitted of his crimes 18 years later in Inner Mongolia autonomous region on Monday.

Huugjilt, who was 18 at the time of his conviction and execution, had his innocence officially announced by Zhao Jianping, deputy chief judge of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Regional Higher People's Court, who also expressed profound apology to his parents.

Huugjilt was found guilty of raping and murdering a woman in a public toilet in Hohhot on April 9, 1996. He was sentenced to death and executed in June 1996.

The court brought 30,000 yuan ($4,500) in compensationwhile delivering the retrial verdict to Huugjilt's parents at their home in Hohhot, capital of Inner Mongoliaautonomous region onMonday morning. The court alsopledged further compensastion.

The court rescinded the previous ruling on the grounds that Huugjilt's confession on how he committed the crime contradicted with the victim's postmortem report. In addition, his account of the woman he "murdered", didn't match with the victim, a young woman surnamed Yang, including the appearance and accent.

The rape and murder took place on April 9, 1996, and Hugjilitu was convicted of the crimes and sentenced to death on May 23. Just 18 days later, June 10, he was executed.

However, since his sentence, another alleged serial rapist and killer, Zhao Zhihong, confessed to the murder after he was arrested in 2005.

Miao Li, the lawyer representing Huugjilt's family, said by reviewing files she found no evidence supporting that Huugjilt raped and murdered the woman.

"According to the principle of presumption of innocence, the exoneration is not out of question." she said.

Zhao Jianping, left, vice president of the Inner Mongolia Higher People's Court, apologizes to Huugjilt's father on Monday for the mistake made in sentencing the young man. [Photo by Wang Wei/ Asianewsphoto]