Court decides to hear Bo Xilai’s appeal
Print Edition
Former senior politician Bo Xilai’s appeal against a guilty verdict on charges of corruption and abuse of power is to be heard by a court in east China’s Shandong Province.
Bo was sentenced to life imprisonment last month in Shandong.
In a brief statement on its website, the provincial high court said Bo had “refused to accept the decision” at his trial and had submitted an appeal to the court.
“This court, upon investigation, decided in accordance with the law to accept,” the statement said.
Bo was sentenced to life by the Intermediate People’s Court in Jinan, the provincial capital, after he was found guilty of taking bribes totaling 20.44 million yuan (US$3.3 million), either personally or through family members, between 1999 and 2012.
The court also convicted Bo of stealing 5 million yuan of government funds and of having abused his power when handling the murder of British citizen Neil Heywood by his wife, Bogu Kailai, and an assistant, as well as the defection of Wang Lijun, then Chongqing’s police chief and vice mayor.
Bo had denied all three charges but the court held there was sufficient evidence to support a conviction.
Bo had appealed “on the day the sentence was announced,” according to a source with direct knowledge of the case.
“At that time he appealed verbally, and later submitted it in writing,” the source said.
“He told the court of first instance that he would appeal and that is equivalent to the court receiving (the application). He also paid the appeal fee. It is not clear when the appeals court will start the review. It should be rather soon, perhaps this Friday or next week.”
Under Chinese rules, an appeal should be heard within two months.
Bo’s five-day trial had offered a rare insight into the family life and dealings of a top politician, exposing bribes, murder, abuse of power and love.
His ill-gotten gains included a French villa purchased by a Chinese businessman for Bo’s wife through shell companies managed in part by Heywood.
Bo, 64, who was Party chief of the southwestern metropolis of Chongqing and a member of the Party’s top 25-member Politburo before his downfall, mounted an unexpectedly fiery defense during his trial, denouncing testimony against him by his wife as the ravings of a mad woman hoping to have her own sentence reduced.
He repeatedly said he was not guilty of any of the charges, though he admitted making some bad decisions and shaming his country by his handling of Wang, the ex-police chief who was the first to tell Bo that his wife had probably murdered Heywood.
He accused Wang — who he had tried to block from investigating Bogu’s role in Heywood’s death — of secretly being in love with her and giving testimony that was “full of lies.”
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