BEIJING: The trial of disgraced senior Chinese politician Bo Xilai will start on Thursday, when he will face charges of bribery, corruption and abuse of power in China’s most divisive and dramatic case in decades.
The long-awaited trial of Bo, 64, a “princeling” son of a late vice premier who is still popular with conservatives and the disaffected, will be the country’s highest-profile hearing since the 1976 downfall of Mao Zedong’s widow, Jiang Qing, and her Gang of Four at the end of the Cultural Revolution.
Bo’s wife, Gu Kailai, and his estranged police chief, Wang Lijun, have both been jailed over the scandal stemming from the November 2011 murder of British businessman Neil Heywood in the southwestern city of Chongqing, where Bo was Communist Party boss.
Bo’s trial will open at the Intermediate People’s Court in Jinan, capital of the eastern coastal province of Shandong, at 8.30am (0030 GMT) on Thursday, Xinhua said in a terse report yesterday. It gave no further details.
A court spokeswoman confirmed the report, but would not say how long the trial would last, though it could be just a day. Bo’s main lawyer, Li Guifang, did not answer telephone calls seeking comment.
It is almost certain Bo will be convicted as China’s prosecutors and judges are controlled by the ruling Communist Party, and he could theoretically be sentenced to death. REUTERS
