CRI听力:Chief Justice Expresses Regrets for Wrongful Convictions

China's Chief Justice has expressed regret for wrongful convictions and urged fellow judges to learn from their own past mistakes.

"We deeply reproach ourselves for letting wrongful convictions happen. Courts of all levels should learn a serious lesson from these cases. We will improve the system to effectively prevent and correct wrongful convictions in a timely manner."

Zhou Qiang made the remarks when delivering his work report of the Supreme People's Court to the national legislature at the ongoing annual session.

According to the report, in 2014, courts nationwide reheard more than 13-hundred cases and corrected a number of mistakes.

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 was convicted and executed. In December, the verdict was overturned, 18 years after the now exonerated man was put to death.

Zhou says the higher court of Inner Mongolia is investigating those responsible for that miscarriage of justice and will hold them accountable.

In a separately delivered report, top prosecutor Cao Jianming also stressed that preventing wrongful convictions is a bottom line that prosecutors must always hold.

According to Cao, over 50 thousand Chinese officials were investigated for corruption last year.

"We have implemented vigorously the Central Government, and the Party's directives to fight corruption. We have handled and investigated a diversity of cases of abuse of power and duty-related crimes. We have handled 41,487 cases involving 55,101 people, which means an annual increase of 7.4 percent."

Prosecutors investigated 28 officials at the provincial or ministerial level and higher for corruption last year, a sharp rise from eight in 2013.

The prosecutor also told legislators that efforts to crack down on corruption will continue.