JINAN - A court in east China's Shandong Province has extended for a third time the review of a rape and murder case for which a young man was executed 20 years ago, only to have another man confess to the crime years later.

With the approval of the Supreme People's Court (SPC), the review of the case of Nie Shubin has been extended for another three months to end on March 15 next year, said the Shandong Higher People's Court on Monday.

The court said the extension was due to the complicated nature of the review work.

Nie, a native of Hebei Province, which neighbors Shandong, was 21 when he was convicted and executed in 1995 for the rape and murder of a woman in Hebei's capital, Shijiazhuang. However, in 2005, Wang Shujin confessed that he was responsible for the crime.

In December 2014, the Shandong higher court was designated to review the case by the SPC. The review was first extended in June and then again in September.

The case is similar to a 1996 case from Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, where a teenager named Huugjilt was executed for the rape and murder of a woman in June 1996. A self-confessed serial rapist and killer later admitted to the crime while in police custody in 2005.

In December 2014, Huugjilt was acquitted by the regional higher people's court. His parents received state compensation of more than 2 million yuan (about 310,000 US dollars).