Bo to do life after appeal rejected

Politician Bo Xilai is handcuffed and held by police officers as he stands at the court in Jinan, in eastern China's Shandong province. Source: AP

DISGRACED Chinese politician Bo Xilai has lost his bid for freedom and will spend the rest of his life in jail after a ruling that ends the long reign of one of China's most powerful families.

Bo, 64, was last month found guilty of high-level corruption, embezzlement and abuse of power charges committed during his lifelong political career.

The Shandong People's Court yesterday dismissed his appeal against the verdict that was delivered last month by the Jinan Intermediate People's Court.

The case was considered the most politically sensitive trial in China in the past three decades, given Bo was a rising star of the Communist Party.

A Shandong court spokesman, Hou Jianjun, said the court did not believe Bo's defence of the charges warranted the verdict being struck out.

"The court verified the facts and evidence of the court of the first instance. The reasons for the appeal presented by Bo Xilai and the opinions of his counsel did not have factual and legal basis and were not tenable," he said.

"The court ruled to reject the appeal, uphold the original judgment and the ruling is the final judgment."

Bo was found guilty of accepting up to 22 million yuan in bribes during his time as Dalian mayor and then party secretary of the powerful Chongqing region, in China's south.

The earlier trial, which lasted nearly twice as long as expected because of Bo's defiance, heard of the tight grip of power the former politician kept in each of his posts.

The bribery charges stemmed from a string of intricate payments Bo received, mostly from property developers, in return for expedited approval processes.

He was also found guilty of embezzling money through his wife, Gu Kailai, and son, Bo Guagua, who is now studying in the US and has kept a low profile throughout the saga.

Gu is currently serving a suspended death sentence for murdering British businessman Neil Heywood.

It was the murder that bought down the powerful family after former Chongqing police chief Wang Lijun accused Bo of interfering in the police investigation to protect his wife.

In the Shandong court yesterday, Bo was led handcuffed and the state broadcaster, CCTV, showed footage of him smiling while the verdict was delivered against him. The streets around the court were closed and a heavy police presence was in place. The case has captivated China because it revealed the inner workers of the Communist Party.

There were suggestions yesterday that Bo could apply to a higher court to have his case reopened if new evidence came to light, but further appeals are unlikely to be successful.

Despite the guilty verdict, Bo still has an army of supporters across China who claim he is the victim of a political purge.

Bo was popular in some Chongqing quarters because of his zero-tolerance approach to crime and his move to reduce the widening income gap.

On Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter, Bo supporters said the former politician should still be spared a life sentence.

One user, Hulibuaixiao, said Bo had been treated poorly by the Communist Party. "Corruption and bribery is common in China. Bo Xilai being sentenced to life and having his political rights deprived is absolutely unfair."