The Supreme People's Court has agreed to review the rape conviction of a man who was sentenced to life in prison more than a decade ago.

Zhang Zhichao was detained at age 16 in 2005 after local investigators accused him of raping and killing a female classmate in Linshu county, Shandong province. He was found guilty of rape and sentenced to life imprisonment by Linyi city's intermediate court in March the following year. His lawyers appealed to China's top court after a similar motion was turned down by the provincial-level high court in 2012.

"We've filed the case and reviews are underway," a senior official of the Supreme People's Court who asked not to named confirmed on Tuesday.

The defendant and his family did not appeal immediately.

"The grassroots court didn't inform us, and we were also unaware of the law," said Ma Yuping, Zhang's mother. "I didn't know what to do until I met my son in jail a year after the conviction. He told me he was tortured during interrogations."

Since then, the 52-year-old mother has been collecting materials and turning to lawyers.

Li Xun, one of the family's lawyers, said he decided to help after he found the judgment was made with insufficient evidence.

"For example, investigators neither provided Zhang's semen stains nor other material evidence," he said. "Besides, the color of the victim's clothes was also different from my client's description. I didn't give up, although I met many difficulties in the appeal."

In addition to sending case materials to the top court, the lawyer also delivered them to the provincial people's procuratorate, hoping prosecutors would play a supervisory role.

In 2015, the prosecutors agreed to review the case, "but they stopped the work in April after the top court stepped into the investigation", Li said.

Wang Dianxue, another lawyer for the family, said the highest court's review was a "significant development" in the case. "I'm looking forward to its thorough and strict review of the case's evidence and facts," he said.

The mother was happy to learn that the case had been filed. "At least it means hope," she said

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