Details of Bo Xilai's trial
Xinhua | 2013-8-28 20:58:01
Details of the trial of Bo Xilai - former secretary of the Chongqing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and a former member of the CPC Central Committee Political Bureau - on charges of bribery, embezzlement and abuse of power, concluded Monday at the Jinan Intermediate People's Court, after hearings from August 22 to 26.
The verdict of the trial will be announced at a date yet to be decided.
In his final statement, Bo said he made serious errors of judgment when handling the defection of Wang Lijun, former vice-mayor and police chief of Chongqing.
"Wang's defection caused vile impacts at home and abroad and undermined the image of the Party and country," he said. "I am deeply ashamed and filled with regret, but I did not intend to misuse my power."
However, he denied the bribery and embezzlement charges. "The charges are not true. My mistake, which was serious, was that I did not discipline my family and subordinates."
"I sincerely admit that my failure to manage my family had a negative effect on the country," he said, adding that he accepted the investigation from the Party and judicial departments.
Prosecutors are pressing for a heavy sentence and have dismissed Bo's denials, and pointed out that many of his claims have been contradictory, and that the evidence against him was overwhelming.
Sources told Xinhua that investigators in charge of the case looked into a total of 97 individuals with a connection to or information about the case.
A hotly anticipated trial
Bo's trial began on August 22 in the largest courtroom of the Jinan Intermediate People's Court. More than 100 people, including Bo's family and relatives, deputies to people's congresses, political advisors, ordinary citizens and journalists attended.
Bo, 64, in addition to his other roles, was also the mayor and Party chief of Dalian in Northeast China's Liaoning Province, a member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Liaoning Provincial Committee and deputy secretary, as well as the governor of Liaoning and minister of commerce.
Over the past few years, as claims of bribery and power abuse emerged, this illustrious career began to totter, and on April 10, 2012, Bo was suspended from the CPC Central Committee Political Bureau and the CPC Central Committee, on suspicion of serious discipline violations and he was put under investigation.
On September 28, 2012, he was expelled from the CPC and arrested.
According to the indictment presented in court, Bo accepted bribes worth about 21.8 million yuan ($3.50 million) directly or jointly with others. It also said he abused his power, causing major losses to the interests of the State and people.
Witnesses Xu Ming, chairman of Dalian Shide Group, Wang Zhenggang, then director of the Dalian Municipal Bureau of Urban and Rural Planning and Land, and Wang Lijun, former vice-mayor of Chongqing, appeared to testify in court.
Prosecutors also played video clips of Bo's wife, Bogu Kailai, and Tang Xiaolin, general manager of Dalian International Development.
According to the indictment, from 1999 to 2006, the defendant Bo Xilai granted Xu favors, including helping Xu with his company's acquisition of the Dalian Wanda Football Club, development projects, construction of a sightseeing hot air balloon in the shape of a football, a bid for the Shuangdaowan petrochemical project in Dalian, and being listed by the Ministry of Commerce as a private importer of crude oil and oil products.
Incriminating properties
The prosecution said that from 2001 to 2012, Bo Xilai repeatedly accepted large sums of money from Xu Ming through his wife, Bogu Kailai, and his son, Bo Guagua.
The court's investigation showed that on July 9, 2001, Bogu Kailai, bought a villa in Nice of France worth over 2.3 million euros (16.25 million yuan) with funds provided by Xu.
Evidence presented by prosecutors showed a three-storey villa with a garden, swimming pool and garage, covering 3,950 square meters, the size of half a football field.
Evidence also showed that Bogu Kailai and her friend, French architect Patrick Devillers, carefully orchestrated an intricate plan where the villa was bought under the name of several companies rather than Bo's family.
Bogu Kailai created a slideshow of the villa, which was played in court.
Xu Ming confirmed that he, Bo and Bogu Kailai had sat together in Bo's home watching the slideshow, and that Bogu clearly explained to Bo that she had asked Xu to buy the villa so that Bo Guagua would have a stable income.
Bo said in court, "The evidence related to the property is like a huge ball, and only a thread on the ball can prove I had something to do with the villa. The thread refers to the scenario in which the slideshow was played in my Shenyang home. However, such a scenario did not take place, and the testimonies of Bogu Kailai and Xu Ming are false."
But during cross-examination, Bo did not deny basic details like "the three watching the slideshow together" and "setting up an alliance to keep the property secret at the commerce ministry," which was confirmed by Xu.
Evidence also showed that Bogu Kailai and her friends registered three companies overseas and involved at least four other foreign companies and one foreign bank in the purchase plan.
Records from the Dalian Shide Group showed that Bogu Kailai and Bo Guagua accepted benefits worth a total of 4,431,432 yuan from Xu.
Embezzlement and power abuse
Prosecutors claim that Bo Xilai, while secretary of the Dalian Municipal Committee of the CPC in 2000, was directly responsible for a confidential reconstruction project in which 5 million yuan was embezzled.
The project was undertaken by Wang Zhenggang, then director of the Dalian municipal bureau of urban and rural planning and land.
Wang said that the confidential nature of the project meant it could not conveniently be entered into official accounts. "I thought nobody in Dalian knew about the project and the money might as well be given to Bo for family expenses as a token of my gratitude for promoting me," Wang said. "When I met Bo, I told him this idea, and Bo thought briefly and said, 'Do it then. Go to Bogu Kailai for details.'"
Testimony from witnesses and records from multiple banks show the 5 million yuan allocated as project funds was entirely transferred into the account provided by Bogu Kailai between May 2002 and March 2005.
In January and February 2012, after a series of incidents in Chongqing, Bogu Kailai was suspected of the murder of British citizen Neil Heywood, who she claimed had threatened Bo Guagua's life.
On January 28, 2012, Wang reported to Bo Xilai on suspicion that Bogu Kailai had committed homicide. The next day, Bo rebuked Wang for framing a murder accusation against Bogu Kailai, slapping Wang's face and smashing a cup.
According to Wang, Bo was using violence to show that Wang must stop investigating the murder case. Wang Lijun was removed from his post as Chongqing police chief and later fled to the US consulate in Chengdu in a defection attempt.
The testimony by Guo Weiguo, who was then the deputy police chief of Chongqing, corresponded with Wang Lijun's account. "Bo Xilai summoned me as well. Beating and rebuking Wang in front of my face, Bo was doing all he could to frighten me so that I would no longer talk of Bogu Kailai's suspicion of murder. To put it bluntly, Bo was using his power to prevent further police investigation of the murder case," according to Guo's testimony.
Xinhua
