BEIJING — He will be one of the highest-level Communist Party officials to face trial in years — and analysts say the sentence has almost certainly been negotiated already.
Bo Xilai, the charismatic former party boss of Chongqing, has been charged with bribery, corruption and abuse of power, authorities said Thursday. Bo was fired last year and purged from the party leadership. His wife was convicted of poisoning a British business associate.
The announcement by Jinan City People’s Procuratorate in Shandong province, reported by the state-run New China News Agency, did not say when Bo would go on trial, but close followers of the case expect the proceedings to begin within a week or two.
The allegations against Bo and his removal from his posts exposed fractures within the Communist Party’s upper ranks.
The son of one of Mao Zedong’s closest comrades, Bo was until last year considered a rival to Xi Jinping, who took the reins of the Communist Party in November and became president in March. His downfall began when Chongqing police chief Wang Lijun briefly took refuge in the U.S. consulate in Chengdu in February 2012 and accused Bo and his wife of poisoning the British man.
Many had expected Bo to be charged and go on trial last fall, ahead of the party’s leadership transition, so that Xi and his new team could take office with a clean slate.
