Bo verdict upheld by higher court

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Bo verdict upheld by higher court

Global Times | 2013-10-26 0:53:01
By Yang Jingjie

The Shandong Higher People's Court Friday upheld a guilty verdict for former Chongqing Party chief Bo Xilai, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for bribery, embezzlement and abuse of power.

The higher court in Jinan, capital of East China's Shandong Province, announced the verdict on Friday morning, and then posted the full transcript of the verdict on its official website, also revealing that Bo is now in custody at Qincheng Prison in suburban Beijing.

Bo, 64, who once held a seat on the 25-member Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), Friday appeared at the court in a black jacket, as shown on a video released by China Central Television.

Over 100 people, including Bo's relatives and journalists, were present at the announcement of the ruling on Bo's appeal, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

The former official faced a five-day open trial at the Jinan Intermediate People's Court in late August.

On September 22, he was convicted of taking bribes totaling 20.44 million yuan ($3.3 million), either per*sonally or through his family members, between 1999 and 2012. The court also convicted Bo of embezzling 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.

Bo filed an appeal to the higher court on September 30.

According to Friday's verdict released by the higher court, Bo and his lawyers made 15 arguments against the original ruling, including citing the "psychological pressure" he was under during interrogation and questioning the reliability of witnesses.

Upon accepting Bo's appeal, the higher court formed a collegial panel for the second trial. The panel reviewed all the case files and video footage of the first trial, and examined Bo's appeal documents and defense lawyers' opinions.

The panel interrogated Bo several times and heard the opinions of his lawyers, verified all evidence, comprehensively examined the facts confirmed during the first trial and legal applications to fully safeguard the litigation rights of Bo and the defense lawyers, Xinhua reported. The panel rejected Bo's arguments.

During the first trial and the appeal, Bo said his written confession was made under "psychological pressure" last year and demanded the exclusion of the confession.

In response, the higher court rejected the exclusion, saying there was no forced confession in Bo's case and all of his confession was made voluntarily.

The court also addressed Bo's argument on the reliability of Bogu Kailai's testimony and the fact that Bogu Kailai didn't appear at the court during the open trial.

It said the Jinan Intermediate People's Court summoned Bogu Kailai, but she refused to appear at the court. According to the Criminal Procedure Law, "if the spouse of a defendant declines to appear in court, the court can't compel him or her to do so," said the verdict.

In the appeal, Bo and his lawyers argued that he had no intention to forbid a probe into his wife's murder of Heywood and that his acts weren't the key reason for the attempted defection by Wang Lijun, Chongqing's former police chief.

After Wang informed Bo that Bogu Kailai was a suspect in the murder of Heywood in late January 2012, Bo slapped Wang in the face, ordered probes on Wang's henchmen and violated organizational procedures to remove Wang. On February 6, 2012, Wang entered the US Consulate General in Chengdu.

The higher court said in the verdict that those moves showed Bo's intention to prohibit a reinvestigation into Heywood's death, and evidence suggested Wang's attempted defection was directly caused by Bo's abuse of power.

The verdict concluded by dismissing Bo's appeal, and said "the decision is also the final order."

After the announcement of the verdict, a source close to Bo, who asked for anonymity, told the Global Times that Bo intends to lodge a petition over the second ruling, as he is not satisfied with the result.

However, the source said Bo now has to serve his term, and no decision has been made about when to file the petition.

If a petition is filed, the judicial department will examine whether a retrial is needed, Han Yusheng, a law professor with the Renmin University of China, told the Global Times by phone on Friday.

Over the past two months, the high-profile case has been under close scrutiny from the public and international media.

Information on the open trial was made public through continuous Weibo updates, demonstrating an unprecedented degree of open*ness and transparency for the Chinese court system.

An opinion piece on takungpao.com.hk Friday said the trial of Bo demonstrated the authorities' intention to push for judicial openness and justice as well as the rule by law. The article noted it also raised expectations for the future trials of senior officials, which "could only be more open rather than closed."

Han agreed that the trial would have implications for future cases, especially in its strict compliance with the legal proceedings throughout the first and second trials.

"In order to realize substantial justice, procedural justice must be ensured, which was embodied in Bo's trial," Han said, noting it's a basic requirement for building China into a society based on the rule of law.

Bo is the highest-level official convicted since the sentence of former Shanghai Party chief Chen Liangyu for bribery and abuse of power in April 2008.

From early 2008 to August this year, 32 ministerial-level officials were put under investigation for graft, according to a report from the Supreme People's Procuratorate released on Tuesday.

Liu Sha contributed to this story