Revealed: photos claim to show life inside China’s ‘luxury prison’ holding jailed wife of disgraced leader Bo Xilai
Images published on a social media account were allegedly taken inside Yancheng prison where Gu Kailai is serving a life sentence for murder
Photographs have been published on social media claiming to show life inside the jail where the wife of the disgraced top Chinese leader Bo Xilai is serving a life sentence for murder.
The pictures posted on WeChat are said to be of Yancheng prison in Hebei province where Bo’s wife Gu Kailai is incarcerated.
Yancheng is among jails in China dubbed by the media “luxury prisons” that often house officials jailed for corruption and other offences.
The pictures were published under the account name Sword of Changan Avenue, which often provides exclusive information about the work of the government’s Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission.
The account claimed that the photographs were taken on Thursday afternoon.
The photographs show images of the daily life of prisoners, including their beds, the canteen and hospital. Some seem freshly taken and others old.
Gu was originally given a suspended death sentence for the killing of the British businessman Neil Heywood over a business dispute in 2011. Her sentence was later commuted to life in jail.
Her husband Bo, the former Communist Party chief in Chongqing, was jailed for life for corruption and abuse of power.
Yancheng prison released a statement this week denying that a recreation area at the jail was closed after Gu’s arrival.
The allegation was made in a magazine article about another prisoner at the jail. The prison said the area had been temporarily shut for renovation work.
The jail is directly controlled by the Ministry of Justice.
Bo is serving his sentence at a similar prison, Qincheng near Beijing.
