Post date: Aug 18, 2013 12:8:47 PM
Former top Chinese politician Bo Xilai to stand trial Aug 22, state media reports.
BEIJING, CHINA (AUGUST 18, 2013)(REUTERS) - The trial of disgraced senior Chinese politician Bo Xilai will start on Thursday (August 22), Xinhua state news agency said on Sunday (August 18), when he will face charges of bribery, corruption and abuse of power in a test of new President Xi Jinping's campaign against graft.
China's state broadcaster CCTV announced the date on its afternoon news bulletin."Jinan Municipal People's court published a notice at 16:00 on August 18, 2013 saying that the court will open trial of Bo Xilai who is suspected of involvement in charges of bribery, corruption and abuse of power at 8:30a.m. on August 22, 2013 at its 5th courtroom," the CCTV anchor read.
The trial of Bo, 64, a "princeling" son of a late vice premier who is still popular with conservatives and the disaffected, is the country's most devisive since the 1976 downfall of Mao Zedong's widow, Jiang Qing, and her Gang of Four at the end of the Cultural Revolution.
Bo's wife, Gu Kailai, and his estranged police chief, Wang Lijun, have both been jailed over the scandal stemming from the November 2011 murder of British businessman Neil Heywood in the southwestern city of Chongqing, where Bo wasCommunist Party chief.
Bo's trial will open at the Intermediate People's Court in Jinan, capital of the coastal province of Shandong, at 8:30 a.m. (0030 GMT) on Thursday, Xinhua said in a terse report on Sunday. It gave no further details.
It is almost certain Bo will be convicted as China's prosecutors and judges are controlled by the ruling Communist Party.
How Bo's case is handled will be a test of the effectiveness of Xi's battle against corruption and also show how he has been able to stamp his authority on the party, which he leads.
Xi has vowed to fight both "tigers" and "flies" - in other words people at every level of the party - as he combats a pervasive graft, so serious he has warned it threatens the party's very survival.
However, his campaign has so far netted precious few "tigers", and in any case the Bo scandal pre-dates Xi's time as national leader.
Bo, a former commerce minister, used his post as party boss of Chongqing to cast the sprawling, haze-covered municipality into a showcase for his mix of populist policies and bold spending plans that won support from leftists yearning for a charismatic leader.
Bo's former police chief, Wang, had spearheaded a controversial drive against organised crime, a prominent plank in Bo's barely concealed campaign to join the top ranks of the party.