The Guangxi High People's Court withdrew a previous ruling in a case in which a man raped a 10-year-old girl, opting to give him the death penalty instead of a suspended death sentence on Monday after a retrial.

The high court publicly announced the death sentence for Yang Guangyi, a native of the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, after it set up a new panel to retry the case.

It said that Oct 4, 2018, Yang used cruel and violent means to rape the girl, who was on her way home after picking passion fruit to sell in Lingshan county, Qinzhou, Guangxi. The girl died as a result.

In July last year, Yang was sentenced to death by the Qinzhou Intermediate People's Court for rape. Yang appealed to the high court, saying he should receive a more lenient punishment because he had turned himself in after the rape.

In March, the high court overturned the ruling, changing Yang's death sentence to the death penalty with a two-year reprieve, but added that further commutation will be difficult for him to receive even with good behavior due to the nature of his crime.

The victim's mother disagreed with that ruling and later appealed to the Supreme People's Court, China's top court.

After reviewing the case, the top court ordered the high court in Guangxi to build a new panel and hold a retrial on Nov 11. The high court reheard the case on Dec 15.

In a statement on Monday, said Yang was not eligible for lenient punishment because he raped the girl in an extremely cruel manner, and his behavior had a great negative effect on the society.

Considering of the serious condition of the case and the harm Yang brought, "we changed his sentence," the high court added.