Bo brands former right-hand man’s testimony as ‘full of lies and fraud’
Print Edition
Ousted senior Chinese official Bo Xilai accused his former police chief, whose flight to a US consulate ignited a lurid scandal, of being a liar and a fraudster yesterday, the fourth day of Bo’s corruption trial.
Before the judge adjourned for the day, Bo launched a scathing attack on Wang Lijun, whom the former Communist Party chief of Chongqing had picked as his right-hand man in the southwestern megacity.
Wang turned accuser at the hearing in the eastern city of Jinan, but Bo said his testimony was “full of lies and fraud.”
Bo is on trial charged with corruption, taking bribes and abuse of power.
Since the trial began last Thursday, Bo has mounted an unexpectedly spirited defense against charges of abuse of power and of netting US$4.3 million through corruption, recanting earlier confessions and rarely expressing contrition as he sought to lay the blame for most of the misdeeds on his wife and others. He deftly cross-examined witnesses, and was selectively unable to recall key details when the questioning turned to him.
He called his wife’s testimony against him the ravings of a mad woman and named a witness a “mad dog.”
Bo yesterday rebutted testimony from his former police chief, who carried out Bo’s crackdown on crime and gangs in Chongqing.
Wang said on Saturday that he told Bo that his wife Bogu Kalai, a former lawyer, had murdered British businessman Neil Heywood, who had been a family friend.
“During Wang Lijun’s testimony he is continuing to lie obviously, and what he is saying is totally unreliable, it is full of deception, he’s just mouthing off,” Bo told the court yesterday, according to the court’s official microblog.
“He has a vile character, spreading rumors here and muddying the waters.”
Wang said when he told Bo that his wife had poisoned Heywood, Bo was furious and punched him on his left ear, leaving him “bleeding from the mouth,” according to Wang’s testimony on Saturday. Wang said Bo did not accept Bogu’s involvement in the murder and had illegally sacked him.
Confronted with evidence
“He said it was not a slap but a punch, but I’ve never learned how to box and have no great strength to strike out,” Bo said yesterday.
Wang fled to the US consulate in the nearby city of Chengdu in February last year after confronting Bo with evidence about Bogu, according to official accounts.
After first helping Bogu evade suspicion of poisoning Heywood, Wang hushed up evidence of the murder.
Bogu was sentenced to a suspended death sentence for the murder last August, and Zhang Xiaojun, a family aide, got nine years. Wang was sentenced to 15 years for “bending the law for selfish ends, defection, abuse of power and bribe-taking.”
On Saturday, Bo admitted mistakes relating to the investigation into Heywood’s killing and “some responsibility” for embezzled state funds that were transferred to one of his wife’s bank accounts.
But he denies charges of abuse of power, bribery and embezzlement.
“The public prosecutor clearly has done a lot of work and I highly respect it,” he said yesterday, but said the evidence against him had been “interpreted out of context.”
Bo confessed to having had extramarital affairs and said his wife moved to Britain because she was angry with him, court transcripts showed.
The Intermediate People’s Court in Jinan is posting regular but delayed transcripts of the proceedings on its account on Sina Weibo.
The testimony has offered a salacious glimpse into the lifestyles of some corrupt officials, complete with private jets and foreign holidays, reinforcing a campaign by President Xi Jinping against corruption and opulence.
The People’s Daily, in a front page editorial yesterday, warned officials that the “worship of gold and material possessions” was the road to ruin.
Bo’s trial resumes for a fifth day today.
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