HOHHOT, Feb. 26 -- A convicted serial killer on Thursday filed an appeal after a court in north China sentenced him to death for multiple crimes, including the murder and rape of a woman in 1996.

Zhao Zhihong, 42, was tried on charges of murder, rape, robbery and larceny at Hohhot Intermediate People's Court in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on Feb. 9.

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

Zhao was apprehended in 2005 and confessed to a string of rape and murder cases, including one in a public toilet in Hohhot in 1996 that was pinned on 18-year-old teenager Huugjilt.

Huugjilt was executed 61 days after the murder and exonerated in December 2014.