The Zhejiang High People's Court retried a case on Tuesday on which it handed down a verdict 16 years ago. The new verdict has not yet been announced.

Five men were convicted of robbing and killing taxi drivers in two attacks that occurred on March 20 and Aug 12, 1995, in the Xiaoshan district of Hangzhou, Zhejiang province.

On December 1997, four of the five were sentenced to death with the possibility of a reprieve, and the other was sentenced to life imprisonment.

On July 27, 2011, Hangzhou police matched a fingerprint left at the site of the March 1995 robbery to a man named Xiang Shengyuan, who had a criminal record.

The court filed a review of the case on Jan 4 and decided on May 21 to retry the case.

The Jiaxing Intermediate People's Court sentenced Xiang to death, with a two-year reprieve, on May 30.

"There is no proof, crime tools, loot or fingerprints to show the five men were involved in the other case either," Zhu Jueming, the lawyer for Tian Xiaoping, one of the five men, told China Daily after the court hearing.

All five said they were tortured for confessions, according to Zhu and his colleague Shi Huijun, the lawyer of another man of the five.

- Hou Liqiang

(China Daily USA 06/26/2013 page4)