Bo Xilai may spend rest of life under surveillance: Ming Pao
Staff Reporter
2012-09-07
16:54 (GMT+8)
Bo Xilai at the National People's Congress in March, shortly before his sacking. (File photo/CNS)
He may escape the most severe punishment for his disciplinary violations, but the CCP may wish to keep the former Chongqing secretary Bo Xilai under some form of surveillance for the rest of his life, Hong Kong's Ming Pao reported on Sept. 6.
The newspaper reported that the party investigation toward Bo has finally been completed and a decision has been made by the country's top leadership to remove Bo from all his remaining senior posts without passing his case to the judiciary.
It nonetheless seems a foregone conclusion that Bo's political career is over and his freedom may be curtailed to a certain extent as the authorities will want to keep an eye on him. Ming Pao reported that Bo's case may become a done deal during the party's 18th National Congress, which is expected to take place next month and usher in the country's next generation of leaders.
Bo may be charged with violating party rules but he will not be charged with any crime in relation to his five-year tenure as party chief of Chongqing, the newspaper said. He may see his pension as a senior party member restores but he will not have any freedom of relocation.
Bo, formerly seen as a rising star tipped for a top leadership position, was sacked as Chongqing party chief in March and detained pending investigation into "serious disciplinary violations" — usually synonymous with corruption.
His downfall was triggered when his former police chief Wang Lijun made a dramatic flight to the US consulate in Chengdu in February, where he conveyed to US diplomats his suspicions that Bo's wife Gu Kailai had murdered British businessman Neil Heywood.
Gu was given a suspended death sentence for the murder in a stage-managed trial last month, while Wang has now been formally charged with bending the law for his own gain — in other words, initially covering up the murder — and with attempting to defect.
