GUANGZHOU - A Chinese man who was acquitted in a retrial after being imprisoned for 16 years received state compensation of 1.57 million yuan ($256,000) on Wednesday.

Personnel of the Guangdong Provincial Higher People's Court handed over the compensation document to Xu Hui and made an apology to him.

Zhuhai Intermediate People's Court sentenced Xu to death with a two-year reprieve in May 2001 for the rape and murder of a 19-year-old girl in 1998. He appealed against the verdict many times without success.

In 2007, the Supreme People's Procuratorate ordered a review of Xu's case saying an error was possible.

Due to inadequate evidence, Xu was acquitted in a retrial by Zhuhai Intermediate People's Court in September this year.

In another case, a couple in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on Monday announced that they would seek state compensation for the wrongful conviction and execution of their son in 1996 in a rape and murder case.