Gu Kailai, Bo Xilai Disgraced Chinese politician, Bo Xilai has
told a court that his wife stole $800,000 of
government funds without his involvement
after he had cheated on her. As the trial moved into a third unscheduled
day on Saturday, Bo rejected prosecution
claims that he knew his wife, Gu Kailai, was
taking the money in 2000 when she moved
to England with their son, Bo Guagua,
following revelations of Bo’s affair with a secretary in her twenties. 64-year-old Bo told Jinan Intermediate
People’s Court that Gu took their son
overseas in a fit of rage after he had been
unfaithful, but he did not know she
intended to take the money. He admitted
that the sum eventually showed up in his wife’s account, and that he had not acted
soon enough to get the money back. “I am ashamed of it. I was too careless,
because this is public money,” Bo told the
court. “I failed to retrieve the money later,
and that’s a factual statement, but can you
say I had the intention to embezzle the
money? No.” Bo also mocked as implausible a former city
official’s evidence, offered earlier in the
trial, that he had overheard a phone call
between the couple in which Bo explicitly
promised to embezzle the cash from a
government project to support his wife. “Not even the stupidest corrupt official
would do this,” Bo said of the account.
“Would I say something this sensitive on the
phone?” Suspicions that his wife killed a British
businessman, Neil Heywood led to Bo’s
removal from office, cemented by criminal
charges of interfering with a murder
investigation and netting $4.3 million
through corruption. The court’s release of trial proceedings are
in sharp contrast with the August 2012
conviction of Gu, when she pleaded guilty to
Heywood’s murder in daylong proceedings
and scant details were released. She was
convicted of the murder and was given a suspended death sentence. Earlier in his trial, Bo said his wife was
“crazy” and could be seeking a more lenient
jail term by denouncing him. Prosecutors have also charged that he
accepted bribes from businessmen in the
form of money or gifts to his family –
including a villa in Nice, France, and plane
tickets to three continents – in exchange
for political favours. The charges of bribery and embezzlement
carry penalties of between 10 years and life
imprisonment, or death in severe cases,
while the abuse of power charge could
result in up to seven years in jail. The ruling Communist Party is using the
trial against Bo, a former Politburo member
and party leader of the city of Chongqing.
Courts in China are controlled by the
Communist Party and so a conviction is
expected. Bo denies all charges.
