A court in North China on Monday has sentenced a man to death for multiple crimes, including the murder and rape of a woman in 1996 which led to the wrongful execution of a teenage boy.

Zhao Zhihong, 42, was tried for murder, rape, robbery and larceny at the Hohhot Intermediate People's Court in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

The court said Zhao committed 21 crimes between 1996 and 2005 in Hohhot and Ulanqab. Besides a series of murders that left 10 people dead, it is alleged he raped 13 women and girls during that time.

The court deprived Zhao of political rights for life, fined him 53,000 yuan ($8,464) and ordered him to pay 102,768 yuan to the victims.

Zhao was arrested in 2005 and confessed to several rapes and murders, including one in a public toilet in Hohhot in 1996 that was pinned on 18-year-old teenager Huugjilt.

Huugjilt was found guilty of raping and killing a woman in a public toilet in Hohhot in 1996 and was executed 61 days after the murder.

On December 15, 2014, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Regional High People's Court exonerated Huugjilt.

Zhao first stood trial in late 2006 for raping and killing nine women and girls, seven other counts of rape, as well as robbery and larceny between 1996 and 2005.

Feng Zhiming, the police officer in charge of Huugjilt's case and who was subsequently promoted, has been put under investigation.