BEIJING — Bo Xilai, at one time the most potent challenger to the current Chinese Communist Party leadership, was sentenced Sunday to life in prison for corruption.
The unexpectedly harsh sentence is likely to be interpreted as a sign of just how anxious the Chinese government is to get the 64-year-old Bo, a telegenic politician in the American mold, off the political stage.
For the first time since the former Chongqing Communist Party secretary was purged last year, Chinese media released a photograph of him in handcuffs. He wore a white shirt and black trousers instead of a prison uniform, but was flanked by two basketball-player-sized police officers apparently picked to minimize his 6-foot-1 height.
The court in Jinan, 250 miles south of Beijing, did not allow live television coverage but has been releasing redacted photographs and transcripts over its microblog account.
“If you don’t agree with this verdict, you can apply for an appeal from tomorrow until the 10th day after the verdict,” the court wrote on the account.
The sentence officially was life imprisonment for bribery, 15 years for embezzlement and seven years for abuse of power. The court rejected Bo’s argument that his wife, Gu Kailai, a key witnesses against him, was mentally ill and therefore incompetent to testify.