At the time of the process, Huugjilt told investigators that he was just passing by the restroom, saw the victim hanging on one side of the wall and decided to report the case to the police. His decision was fatal for himself because later he became the primary suspect. During an interrogation in May 1996 he was forced “to confess” to prosecutors that he committed the murder. Even many contradictions in the case, he was a loser confronted with China’s legal system. “We finally got the not-guilty verdict. We’re really grateful to all the people who paid attention to us!” his parents said on Monday when a Chinese court overturned a guilty verdict. “I sincerely apologize, I’m sorry!” Zhao Jianping, deputy director of Supreme People’s Court in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, told the executed teenager’s parents, giving them $4,841 as a personal compensation. The parents burned a copy of the court’s verdict at their son’s grave in Hohhot. Police officers responsible for the case are under investigation.
