JINAN, China, (Reuters) – A court in eastern China rejected an appeal by ousted senior politician Bo Xilai yesterday and, as expected, upheld his life sentence on charges of bribery, corruption and abuse of power.
It said the evidence against him was clear.
Bo, once a rising star in China’s leadership circles who had cultivated a following through his populist, quasi-Maoist policies, was jailed for life in September after a dramatic fall from grace that shook the ruling Communist Party.
His career was stopped short last year by a murder scandal in which his wife, Gu Kailai, was convicted of poisoning a British businessman, Neil Heywood, who had been a family friend.
The high court Jinan in the eastern province of Shandong, where Bo was originally tried, said that it was satisfied the first trial had done justice in the case.
