Jinan Intermediate People’s court has announced that it will deliver a verdict on fallen Chongqing Party chief Bo Xilai on Sunday at 10:00 a.m.. Bo was tried in August on charges of bribery, embezzlement, and abuse of power. From Didi Tang at AP:
“The verdict may appear to be come from the court, but it is from the highest leadership,” said Han Deqiang, an economist at Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics and a staunch supporter of Bo. “If we simply go by the law of innocence until proven, he is clearly not guilty, but the prosecution presumed his guilt and there are other factors such as politics,” Han said.
[…] Li Zhuang, a Beijing-lawyer who was jailed in Chongqing under Bo’s rule and who has been closely following Bo’s case, said Bo would be sentenced to at least 20 years in jail given the charges against him. Given Bo’s spirited defense in the trial, he is likely to try to appeal any guilty verdict, Li said.
[…] Li Xiaolin, another prominent Beijing lawyer, said Bo is likely to be sentenced to 15 years in prison and that he may not bother with an appeal.
“What’s the use of appealing? It would be futile,” Li said. “But he may issue some statement.” [Source]
South China Morning Post’s Keith Zhai reports that Bo has expressed resignation to imprisonment but confidence that his name will one day be cleared in a letter to his family:
Two people with close ties to the Bo family confirmed to the South China Morning Post yesterday that the letter – circulated among a small group of his supporters since Tuesday – was indeed written by the 64-year-old former Politburo member.
[…] “I will wait quietly in the prison,” the former Chongqing party chief wrote. “My father was jailed many times. I will follow his footsteps.” Bo’s late father Bo Yibo was one of the most influential communist elders to survive the Cultural Revolution.
[…] The elder Bo was sent to jail at least twice by the Nationalists before the communists swept to power in 1949. He was purged in 1966 during the Cultural Revolution and was reinstated to power only in the late 1970s. [Source]
See earlier speculation on Bo’s likely sentence—a guilty verdict being considered a foregone conclusion—and other reactions to the trial, via CDT.
