Court set to make ruling on Bo’s appeal

By Bai Tiantian and Liu Sha Source:Global Times Published: 2013-10-22 0:53:01

A court in East China's Shandong Province will rule Friday morning on the appeal of Bo Xilai, former Chongqing Party secretary, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for bribery, embezzlement and abuse of power.

The Shandong Higher People's Court made the announcement on Monday.

"It is in line with China's judicial system that this appeal is not heard in a public trial," Tong Zhiwei, a professor at the East China University of Political Science and Law, told the Global Times on Monday.

The Supreme People's Court ruled that only death penalty cases must have a trial for the appeal.

Tong said that the court will most likely uphold the ruling in the first instance since the evidence looked solid.

China's judicial system stipulates that the second verdict will be final. If the previous verdict is sustained, Bo will have to serve his time immediately, but is still able to lodge a petition, Tong added.

Bo declined to accept the sentence of the first trial from the Jinan Intermediate People's Court in Shandong Province and formally submitted an appeal to the higher court on September 30, according to a source close to Bo.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the Global Times on Monday that whether Bo will make a petition depends on the outcome of the second verdict.

Bo, 64, who previously held a seat on the 25-member Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), faced a five-day open trial in late August and was found guilty of taking bribes totaling 20.44 million yuan ($3.3 million), either personally 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.

The trial was made public through continuous Weibo updates, demonstrating an unprecedented degree of openness and transparency, which could serve as an example for other cases, according to analysts.

"The authority released information [in Bo's case] in a prompt manner, which prevented the spread of any unnecessary rumors," Duan Wanjin, a Shaanxi-based criminal lawyer, told the Global Times on Monday.



Posted in: Politics

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