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Subscribe to RSSChina's most politically explosive trial wrapped in a matter of hours when Gu Kailai, the wife of Chinese politician Bo Xilai, did not object to murder charges against her. ITV's Angus Walker reports.
HEFEI, China -- China pressed ahead Friday with an offensive against ousted politician Bo Xilai, a day after the murder trial of his wife, with a separate prosecution of four police officers accused of trying to cover up the killing that she allegedly carried out.
The dismissed officers went on trial for "bending the law to show favoritism" by shielding Bo's wife, Gu Kailai, from an inquiry into the death of Briton Neil Heywood.
Gu stood trial for poisoning the businessman over a financial transaction that went sour, according to a court statement. She did not dispute the murder charge during Thursday's seven-hour, closed-door trial hearing and a verdict will soon be delivered, the statement said.
Heywood's death in November and its alleged cover-up in Bo's stronghold of Chongqing, the southwestern municipality he ran, was central to the torrent of events that toppled him from the upper echelons of Chinese political power and exposed the ruling Communist Party to its worst upheaval in decades.
Legal noose tightens
Bo was one of China's most powerful and charismatic politicians until he was ousted.
The legal noose is tightening fast on Bo's wife and police involved in investigating the murder case, suggesting there is a danger Bo could himself face charges of masterminding a cover-up and could risk a lengthy jail term.
Corruption may be widespread in China, but one official crossed a line when he wiretapped President Hu Jintau. Now that official's wife is a murder suspect. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.
The South China Morning Post said Friday that Bo's former Chongqing police chief, Wang Lijun, would stand trial as early as next week in the southwestern city of Chengdu. Wang sought temporary refuge in Chengdu's U.S. consulate in February after sources told Reuters that he told Bo that Gu was a murder suspect.
Wang's dramatic flight to the U.S. mission triggered the murder scandal that quickly led to Bo's downfall. Until then, Heywood's death had been officially attributed to a possible heart attack brought on by excessive alcohol consumption.
Chinese media stuck to the terse official account of Gu's trial on Friday, despite avid public interest in this scandal that has exposed the fusion of wealth and privilege in China's political elite, and exposed rifts in the party.
Bo, 63, has not been a focus of the proceedings so far. But most experts believe the trial and almost certain conviction of his wife Gu and the four police officers is a prelude to his punishment, which could include a criminal trial.
Reuters
This photo shows Bo Xilai, British businessman Neil Heywood and Bo's wife Gu Kailai.
Little delay likely in announcing verdict
The court in the eastern Chinese city Hefei did not say when it would announce any verdict against Gu. But the usual wait was about two weeks, Chen Guangwu, a criminal defense attorney who has followed the Chongqing scandal closely, told Reuters.
"But they won't delay for too long, because this case is being heard in order to pave the way for dealing with Bo Xilai himself," said Chen, who is based in eastern Shandong province.
"This case is in part about testing the waters for that. That is, they will sentence her and see what reaction there is in society and public opinion," he said.
Wife of ousted China politician charged with Briton's murder
Bo's downfall has stirred more public division than that of any other party leader for more than 30 years. To leftist supporters, Bo became a rallying figure for efforts to reimpose party control over dizzying and unequal market growth. To liberal critics, Bo was a dangerous opportunist who yearned to impose his harsh policies on the entire country.
As the four police officers went on trial, also in Hefei, Chinese authorities cordoned off the courthouse and excluded foreign reporters from the hearing. Vans parked nearby were bristling with video surveillance equipment.
A court spokeswoman said the case would begin at 8:30 a.m. (7:30 p.m. ET Thursday). "It's open to the public but I'm afraid all the places are full at this time," she said, according to Reuters.
China's Communist party unleashes its full weight against former politician Bo Xilai and his wife over a murder scandal. ITN's Angus Walker reports from Beijing.
It was unclear whether the case began as scheduled.
The four men on trial -- Guo Weiguo, Li Yang, Wang Pengfei and Wang Zhi -- were senior police officers in Chongqing who allegedly sought to stymie an investigation into Heywood's death in a hilltop hotel villa overlooking Chongqing.
On Thursday, a court official said prosecutors believed Bo's wife, Gu, and a family aide, Zhang Xiaojun, killed Heywood by pouring poison down his throat after a business dispute led Gu to believe Heywood had threatened her son, Bo Guagua, then a student at Harvard University.
NYT: Increasingly outspoken military alarms China's leaders
During Gu's seven-hour hearing on Thursday, it was alleged Heywood had written a letter to Guagua, threatening to "destroy" him, a source who had been briefed on the hearing told Reuters. Heywood and Guagua had fallen into dispute over Heywood's demand for a fee to help arrange a $200 million financial transaction, the source told Reuters.
In what's being called the biggest Chinese political scandal in years, Bo Xilai, the Communist Party secretary in Chongqing, was sacked Thursday. NBC's Ed Flanagan reports.
Guagua, believed to be in the United States after graduating this year from Harvard University, denied there was such a deal of that value but appeared to confirm the letter's existence.
"I cannot comment on any of the details (of the letter), but I can disclose that there is no such thing as either possessing or transferring" $200 million, Guagua wrote in an e-mail sent to Reuters.
Scandal sends China's netizens into feeding frenzy
Political infighting
The scandal has drawn attention to political infighting that China prefers to keep secret and comes at a time when the government is preparing for a once-a-decade political transition — at the 18th party congress later this year, where it will install a new generation of leaders.
More China coverage from NBCNews.com's Behind The Wall
Bo, the son of a revolutionary veteran, was once a contender for one of those top jobs. But his overt maneuvering to reach the highest echelons of the Communist Party angered some leaders, as did his bombastic campaigns to bust organized crime and promote communist culture while trampling civil liberties and reviving memories of the chaotic Cultural Revolution.
Bo is in the hands of the party's internal discipline and inspection commission, which is expected to issue a statement about his infractions. That would open the way for a court trial with charges possibly including obstructing police work and abuse of power. Thus far, Bo has been accused only of grievous but unspecified rules violations.
Reuters and The Assiocated press contributed to this report.
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Leave a Comment:
Chinese judiciary is just and swift.
Swift definately ! Just ? I think the people from Tiannamen Square would say '' Tanks for the Memories ".
Every nation wants to show ( and for us to believe) that no one is above the law .... if it was only so! .....
For a Country without free press, I really don't believe their judiciary system. This may have been a TV show to make everyone happy.
The people of China have more personal freedom than Americans enjoy, that's a fact. The police do not carry weapons and are addressed as Uncles. In the US Abuse of Power under the Color of Authority by Police is RAMPANT. It is because they do not agree with the Supreme Court ruling regarding Reasonable suspicion and probable cause are street wise enough to be able to break the law by manufacturing probable cause or reasonable suspicion and break the law and abuse peoples rights. Especially minorities who are least likely to be able to hire an attorney and fight back.
Here are but a couple recent examples:
On Friday, the ACLU settled a class action lawsuit, pending court approval, against officials in the East Texas town of Tenaha and Shelby County over the rampant practice of stopping and searching drivers, almost always Black or Latino, and often seizing their cash and other valuable property. The money seized by officers during these stops went directly into department coffers. It was highway robbery, targeting those who could least afford to challenge the officers’ abuse of power, under the guise of a so-called “drug interdiction” program and made possible by Texas’s permissive civil asset forfeiture laws.
Hundreds, if not more than a thousand, people have been stopped under the interdiction program. From 2006 to 2008, police seized approximately $3 million from at least 140 people as part of the program. None of the ACLU’s clients were ever arrested or charged with a crime after being stopped and shaken down.
Officers who are defendants in the case testified that there were no limits on the searches and seizures conducted under the interdiction program. One of the defendants, Barry Washington, testified that he considered the ethnicity and religion of the motorists to be factors relevant to establishing reasonable suspicion of criminal activity. Under oath, when asked what indicators of criminal activity might be, Washington testified:
And You tube video - Breakfast in Collinsville:
you have never been to China and talk with a hole in your head
@ TigerBoy - clearly you have never been to Texas and talk with your ass, or is that actually your head, cant tell. All rednecks look alike anyways.
Too bad we don't have a law against showing favoritism to politicians and their wives here.
i think if some US politician's wife murder somebody, she won't get special treatment. might get a good lawyer for insanity or plea bargain etc though
No special treatment at all. Thats why you can blast a friend in the face with a shotgun!
Who do you think you are Dwoo Petahsahn ?
Bogu Kailai and Zhang Xiaoiun stood trial for intentional homicide (of Neil Heywood).Their behaviour violated Article 232 of the criminal code. In the court were 140 people- British Amb+ relatives of Neil Heywood and their lawyer- other embassies' representatives and lawyers and relatives of the defendants. Read Global Times. http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/726212.shtml.
She deserves death for being so brutal pouring poison
down the British man's throat!
They want to charge Bo with abuse of power? LOL In China? I thought that's what being in politics was all about, especially there.
The people of China have more personal freedom than Americans enjoy, that's a fact. The police do not carry weapons and are addressed as Uncles. In the US Abuse of Power under the Color of Authority by Police is RAMPANT. It is because they do not agree with the Supreme Court ruling regarding Reasonable suspicion and probable cause are street wise enough to be able to break the law by manufacturing probable cause or reasonable suspicion and break the law and abuse peoples rights. Especially minorities who are least likely to be able to hire an attorney and fight back.
Here are but a couple recent examples:
On Friday, the ACLU settled a class action lawsuit, pending court approval, against officials in the East Texas town of Tenaha and Shelby County over the rampant practice of stopping and searching drivers, almost always Black or Latino, and often seizing their cash and other valuable property. The money seized by officers during these stops went directly into department coffers. It was highway robbery, targeting those who could least afford to challenge the officers' abuse of power, under the guise of a so-called "drug interdiction" program and made possible by Texas's permissive civil asset forfeiture laws.
Hundreds, if not more than a thousand, people have been stopped under the interdiction program. From 2006 to 2008, police seized approximately $3 million from at least 140 people as part of the program. None of the ACLU's clients were ever arrested or charged with a crime after being stopped and shaken down.
Officers who are defendants in the case testified that there were no limits on the searches and seizures conducted under the interdiction program. One of the defendants, Barry Washington, testified that he considered the ethnicity and religion of the motorists to be factors relevant to establishing reasonable suspicion of criminal activity. Under oath, when asked what indicators of criminal activity might be, Washington testified:
And You tube video - Breakfast in Collinsville:
China needs to send a few body parts of Mr Haywood to the UK for a forensic study and then comment further. At this stage it is a open forum for stupid comments on China.
I do agree with part of the comments, but some are nothing more than BS.
One thing I do agree with is. China does have a lot more freedom than a lot of the US and other parts of the world we know. China to a high degree tells it how it is, and not afraid to say it for fear of being sued.
Go to China and walk around the streets. This is a pretty good indicator of what level of freedom there is in that country. China is a harsh place for drug offenders, and criminals in general. They have to be.
Democracy is a word only in many places, and China has a high degree of democracy. I am not Chinese, but do see things as they are. Black is black, white is white.
I do agree with you, there is no perfect place on earth, its' good or bad depends only upon your own feeling or what you hear from others. To truely judge a country, best way is to understand that country and to read from different sources. One most important thing is not to believe the media especially those from this country.