Bo Xilai told trial he had orders from the top to deal with Chongqing police chief

Bo Xilai claimed at his trial last week that he received orders from a law and order committee headed by China's former top policeman, Zhou Yongkang, on how to deal with the defection of the Chongqing police chief, say people with knowledge of the proceedings.

Bo's words to the court last week are the first direct evidence linking him to Zhou, himself now the subject of a party investigation for corruption.

A prosecution statement about the matter - first redacted, then removed from the official trial transcript - suggests Zhou was at least in contact with Bo about his handling of Wang Lijun's defection to the US consulate in Chengdu in February last year.

That incident brought down Bo, then Chongqing party secretary, and triggered China's biggest political scandal in decades.

At the time, Zhou was head of the Communist Party's Central Commission for Political and Legal Affairs. The commission oversees the nation's courts, prosecutors and the police.

Bo, who is awaiting a verdict on charges of bribery, embezzlement and abuse of power after his sensational five-day trial, is widely seen as an ally of Zhou - the first current or former member of the party's supreme decision-making body, the Politburo Standing Committee, to be investigated for economic crimes.