The acquittal of 54-year-old Chen Man who spent 23 years in prison having been wrongly convicted of arson and murder became an instant hot topic minutes after his release on Monday.

Chen from Sichuan province was handed a suspended death sentence in 1994 having been accused of killing a man in Haikou, capital of Hainan province, and then setting a fire to destroy evidence.

Officials from the Hainan Provincial People's Court bowed and apologized to Chen, informing him that he has the right to apply for state compensation.

Wang Wanqiong, Chen's lawyer, spoke highly of the apology, saying that it was good for her client's family to witness the progress of rule of law.

Wang said the correction of the case due to insufficient evidence and unclear facts reflects the principle of "no punishment in doubtful cases" under current Chinese Criminal Procedure Law.

Cheng Lei, an associate law professor at Renmin University of China, agreed, saying that the strength and determination in correcting wrongful verdicts should be applauded, especially in recent years.

"Such correction, I believe, will urge police to be more careful in investigations and also avoid evidence illegally gained by torture," Cheng said.

Chen's case also sparked heated debate online where the topic of "23-year Chen Man's case" attracted 177,000 readers on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo within eight hours of the announcement of his acquittal.

Some Internet users said Chen is lucky to be able to walk out of prison alive and spend Chinese New Year with his family though he wrongfully spent 23 years of his prime in prison.

Others, however, said a simple word of acquittal can't make up for Chen's loss and urged reflection on loopholes in current laws and severe punishment of involved law enforcement officials.

Elsewhere, 27 officials were penalized with one suspected of job-related crimes and subject to further investigation and the remainder receiving only administrative penalties over the wrongful conviction and execution of Huugjilt 20 years ago, authorities in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region said in a statement Sunday night.

Huugjilt's conviction was overturned in December 2014 after the teenager was ruled not guilty of rape and murder. He was executed when only 18.

When comparing Chen's case to that of Huugjilt, some Internet users said punishment for the officials involved with Huugjilt is too light and hurts the rule of law more than wrongful cases, while others said if punishments were heavy it was likely Chen wouldn't be acquitted because nobody would dare overturn his case.