This screen grab taken from CCTV footage released yesterday shows ousted Bo Xilai being led out of the courtroom after standing trial in the Intermediate People’s Court in Jinan, east China’s Shandong province.

Reuters/DPA/AFP/Jinan, China

Chinese prosecutors demanded a heavy sentence for ousted top politician Bo Xilai as his divisive, dramatic trial ended yesterday, saying that his “whimsical” challenge to charges of bribery, graft and abuse of power flew in the face of the evidence.
Bo was a rising star in China’s leadership circles when 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.
Bo, who was Communist Party chief of the southwestern metropolis of Chongqing, has mounted an unexpectedly feisty defence since the trial began on Thursday, denouncing testimony against him by his wife as the ravings of a mad woman.
The court, announcing the end of the five-day trial, said that the verdict would come at a later date. It did not provide details, but it could be announced within the next few weeks.
Bo has repeatedly said he is not guilty of any of the charges, although he has admitted to making some bad decisions and to shaming his country by his handling of former Chongqing police chief, Wang Lijun, who first told Bo that Gu Kailai had probably murdered Heywood.
Wang fled to the US consulate in the nearby city of Chengdu in February last year after confronting Bo with evidence that Gu Kailai was involved in the murder.
Gu Kailai was handed a suspended death sentence last year. Wang was sentenced to 15 years in prison for corruption, defection and other offences.
Before her arrest in March 2012, Gu “told me very clearly that she didn’t murder anyone”, Bo said. “Wang Lijun framed her.”
Summing up the evidence, the state’s prosecutor said that Bo should not be shown leniency as he had recanted admissions of guilt provided ahead of the trial.
“Over the past few days of the trial, the accused Bo Xilai has not only flatly denied a vast amount of conclusive evidence and facts of his crimes, he has also repudiated his pre-trial written testimony and materials,” the court cited the prosecutor as saying.
“We take this opportunity to remind Bo Xilai: the facts of the crimes are objective, and can’t be shifted around on your whim,” it said, without saying which of the four prosecutors had made the remarks.
In his final address to the court, Bo admitted to personal failings.
“I know I’m an imperfect man,” Bo said. “I’m very subjective and bad-tempered. I have committed serious errors and mistakes ... I did not manage my family and subordinates well, I have made big mistakes and am sorry to the party and the people.”
He struck an emotional note.
“I’m trapped deep in the disaster of being in prison,” he said. “I’m haunted by all sorts of feelings and all I have left is the remaining time of my life.”
“I failed to keep my family members and subordinates within bounds. I made significant mistakes. I feel guilty towards the party and the public.”
Bo could theoretically be given the death penalty for the charges, although many observers say that is unlikely as the party will not want to make a martyr of a man whose left-leaning social welfare policies won much popular support.
Under Chinese law the death penalty is available for cases of bribery involving more than 100,000 yuan ($16,000).
The trial has heard many salacious allegations against Bo, with transcripts, although probably edited, being carried on the court’s official microblog.
Bo’s defiance over the course of the hearings astonished a public unfamiliar with the open airing of top-level intrigue and was in stark contrast to previous Chinese political trials, in which most defendants have humbly confessed their crimes in opaque court proceedings.
The prosecution has alleged that Bo took more than 20mn yuan ($3.27mn) in bribes from two businessmen, embezzled another 5mn yuan from a government building project, and abused his power in trying to cover up Gu Kailai’s crime.
Details have been presented of a villa on the French Riviera bought for the Bo family by businessman Xu Ming, who also paid for foreign trips by Bo and Gu Kailai’s only son, Bo Guagua, offering a glimpse into the lifestyles of China’s elite politicians.
Bo said that he had initially admitted to Communist Party anti-corruption investigators that he received bribes as he had been “under psychological pressure”.
Bo also said that he been framed by one of the men accused of bribing him, businessman Tang Xiaolin, who he called a “mad dog”.
The prosecutor said Bo’s lack of contrition would count against him.
“The severity of the accused’s crimes, and that he refused to admit guilt, don’t match the circumstances of leniency, and (he) must be severely punished in accordance with the law.”
Bo said he had offered his confession about accepting bribes from Tang because he wanted to “co-operate, to get the understanding” of the party, which at the time was leading the investigation into him.
“At the time, I had a spark of hope, I hoped to keep my party membership, to keep my political life,” Bo said, according to the court’s transcript.
There was no mention in the transcript of Bo’s previous assertion of being pressured to confess, although he said that he had felt “under pressure” throughout the entire investigation into him.
“I have been just a working machine for the last 30 years and have not had time to look into minor details” of his family spending, he added.
Bo also provided a new explanation for why Wang – who has accused Bo of punching him upon the news of Gu’s involvement in Heywood’s murder – fled to the US consulate.
Gu Kailai and Wang were “deeply attached” in a relationship that was a major cause of a murder scandal, he told the court.
“He was secretly in love with Gu Kailai,” Bo said, adding that Gu had rejected the former police chief. “He muscled in on my home, on my feelings, which is the real reason for his defection.”
Despite Bo’s gutsy defence, a guilty verdict is a foregone conclusion as China’s courts are controlled by the Communist Party.
State media, which speaks for the party, has already all but condemned him.
Bo’s fall from power caused one of the biggest internal rifts in the ruling Communist Party since the 1989 military crackdown on democracy protests. His supporters insist his trial is politically motivated.
Bo was once the Communist chief of the southwestern megacity of Chongqing, one of the 25 highest-ranking members of the ruling party and tipped to ascend even higher.
In an unprecedented move for such a high-profile case, the court published regular transcripts of the proceedings as well as audiovisual material and documents.
But the transcripts did not appear to be a full record of the proceedings, no foreign media were present in the room and no independent verification was possible.
The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post yesterday quoted sources as saying Bo’s remarks were censored by the court to omit “sensitive testimony that might humanise Bo Xilai or cast (party leaders in) Beijing in a bad light”.
The delays in posting the transcripts lengthened as the trial went on, and yesterday’s posting of the prosecutor’s address was taken down within minutes of being published.
It was reposted and taken down again, before being re-published once more with one section deleted.