Nairabet

Sunday, 22 September 2013

A Chinese court has found disgraced former top politician Bo Xilai guilty of bribery, embezzlement and abuse of power.


The former party chief of Chongqing was sentenced to life imprisonment, but has the right to appeal.
He had denied all the charges against him in a fiery defence at his trial.
Bo was removed from office last year amid a scandal which saw his wife convicted for the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood.
The verdict was handed down by the Intermediate People's Court in Jinan, Shandong province.
Passing sentence the judge told Bo that he had damaged China's national interests and the interests of its people, wrongfully using his position in power to receive bribes totalling 20 million Chinese Yuan ($3.2m; £2m).
Bo was sentenced to life in prison on the bribery charges, 15 years for embezzlement and seven years for
abuse of power - our correspondent says that he has been politically buried. In addition all his personal wealth has been confiscated.
He has 10 days to appeal against his sentence and conviction, but correspondents say that any such move is highly unlikely to be successful.
Although his trial was conducted under an unprecedented degree of openness for China, many analysts say that the guilty verdict was always a foregone conclusion - and many see the process against him as having a very strong political dimension.
Prosecutors had said that Bo accepted the bribes and embezzled public funds from Dalian, where he used to be mayor.
He was also accused of abusing his office by using his position to cover up for his wife Gu Kailai, convicted last year of murdering Neil Heywood in 2011.
In lengthy comments in court, he said he did not illegally obtain millions of dollars or cover up Mr Heywood's killing.
He also dismissed the testimony of two key witnesses, describing his wife's statement as "ridiculous" and his former police chief Wang Lijun's testimony as "full of lies and fraud".

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