China's Fallen Political Star Bo Xilai Gets Life in Jail

China's disgraced political star Bo Xilai was sentenced Sunday to life in prison for corruption, embezzlement, and abuse of power in a harsher punishment than many had expected.

The sentence, announced by the Intermediate People's Court in eastern Shandong Province's Jinan city, caps the country's biggest political scandal in decades.

Considering his seniority in the ruling Chinese Communist Party, many had expected Bo to get 15 to 20 years in jail, but the court appears to have acceded to the demands of prosecutors for a "severe" punishment for the former Chongqing Party chief at the heart of a murder and corruption scandal.

The harsh sentence may have been imposed because he refused to admit to the charges and had mounted a spirited defense, some analysts said. High-profile trials in China are normally carefully choreographed.  

The court said on its verified page on Sina Weibo, a Chinese equivalent of Twitter, that the 64-year-old Bo was sentenced to life in prison on the bribery charges, 15 years for embezzlement, and seven years for abuse of power.

The court, which conducted Bo's trial, also ordered that all his personal assets be seized after convicting him of taking 20.4 million yuan (U.S. $3.3 million) in bribes.

It threw out charges that he accepted 1.34 million yuan (U.S $218,910) worth of air ticket fees as bribes based on an indictment that his wife and son accepted the money from a businessman, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Bo, a member of the Communist Party's 25-strong elite politburo before his fall from power, was escorted in handcuffs into the courtroom by marshals. He stood and listened to the judge who read out a lengthy verdict.

Sporting crew-cut hair and wearing a white shirt and black pants, he did not indicate in court whether or not he would appeal, according to court spokesman Liu Yanjie, news agencies reported.

Bo's trial has been the most politically charged hearing of a former high-ranking Party member since that of Mao's wife Jiang Qing in 1980.

The outspoken Bo had mounted a feisty defense, cross-examining witnesses, admitting "responsibility," but pleading not guilty to all formal charges.

'Punished for disobedience'

Bo is the highest-level politician convicted for corruption under China's leader Xi Jinping, who has staked his reputation on combating graft within the Communist Party.

"I think the point is that Xi wanted to punish Bo Xilai for daring to go against the party's arrangements," said Willy Lam, an expert on party politics at Chinese University in Hong Kong, according to the Associated Press. "He was punished for his disobedience and defiance."

Joseph Cheng, a China politics expert at City University of Hong Kong, also said that Bo's active contesting of the charges during his trial was a factor in the harsh sentence.

"A defiant attitude and refusing to admit one's guilt is considered bad behavior and attracts a heavier sentence," Cheng told Agence France-Presse.

Bo had admitted during his trial that he had made mistakes in the handling of an investigation into the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood in 2011 for which his wife has been convicted, but denied charges of abuse of power.

Bo, whose political ambitions were squashed last year by his wife Gu Kailai's scandal, also said that he bore some responsibility for public funds he is accused of embezzling.

Bo's ex-police chief Wang Lijun, his right hand man in the Chongqing megacity, was sentenced to 15 years in prison last year for a range of crimes including abuse of power relating to Heywood's murder.

Reported by RFA's Mandarin and Cantonese Services. Written in English by Parameswaran Ponnudurai.