Chinese courts at various levels have overturned convictions in 6,747 criminal cases after retrials in the past five years, the Supreme People's Court said Friday.

Among the cases, 39 major wrongful convictions were corrected, including the cases of Huugjilt and Nie Shubin, said a report delivered by Chief Justice Zhou Qiang at a plenary meeting of the annual session of the National People's Congress.

Huugjilt was executed in 1996 for the rape and murder of a woman. He received a posthumous exoneration in 2014 after a serial rapist and killer admitted to the crime.

Nie, who was executed for rape and murder in 1995, was acquitted in 2016, when a retrial found the conviction had been based on insufficient evidence and unclear facts.

Courts at various levels acquitted a total of 4,874 defendants from 2013 to 2017, said Zhou.

State compensation was granted to the victims who had been wronged.

"We have issued guidelines to prevent wrongful convictions and adhere to the principles of legality, evidence judgment and presumption of innocence," he said.