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Testimony at Chinese Ex-Official’s Trial Ties Briton’s Killing to Demand for Money
Prosecutors Say Chinese Politician Knew About Bribes
(about 1 hour later)
JINAN, China — Prosecutors in the trial of Bo Xilai, the former senior Communist Party official, presented testimony on Friday that tied the murder of a British businessman in 2011 to compensation he was said to be demanding from the Bo family for his management of a villa on the French Riviera.
JINAN, China — Prosecutors in the trial of Bo Xilai, the former Communist Party star, presented testimony on Friday asserting that he knew about a villa on the French Riviera bought for his family by a tycoon and about demands for compensation from a British businessman managing the villa who was later murdered by Mr. Bo’s wife.
Mr. Bo’s wife, Gu Kailai, was convicted of the murder of the businessman, Neil Heywood, a year ago and sentenced to life in prison. After the death of Mr. Heywood was made public in March 2012, the ensuing scandal led to the downfall of Mr. Bo, who was a Politburo member and party chief of the municipality of Chongqing and was said to be a candidate for one of the top party posts. Mr. Bo, whose trial began Thursday, is charged with taking bribes, embezzlement and abuse of power; the last charge is an accusation that he tried to obstruct an investigation into Mr. Heywood’s murder, presumably to protect Ms. Gu.
The testimony was aimed at proving that Mr. Bo knew about favors his family was accepting from the tycoon, Xu Ming. But Mr. Bo denied knowledge of such crimes on the second day of his trial, which has been unveiled for the public via an unexpected feed of titillating official microblog posts from the court here in northern China. The use of the microblog suggests pressure on the party to make transparent the case against Mr. Bo, a polarizing neo-leftist politician from a powerful Communist revolutionary family, but at the risk of exposing weakness in the prosecution and bolstering public support for Mr. Bo.
As they did on Thursday, the trial’s opening day, officials released information about the hearing on Friday through updates on a court microblog account. Transcripts released via the microblog on Thursday showed Mr. Bo taking a defiant stand in the court and lashing out at the witnesses, in a display of the showmanship that helped propel him to the top ranks of the party.
Party authorities took measures to temper some of the spectacle on Friday. A person briefed on the proceedings said late Friday that under orders from authorities, the day’s transcripts were considerably less comprehensive than those released Thursday. The newer ones were vetted longer before being posted, and offered fewer rebuttals from Mr. Bo and his lawyers.
But a person briefed on the proceedings said Friday afternoon that that day’s transcripts had been less comprehensive. Those transcripts, for example, revealed less testimony from Mr. Bo.
And the party intensified its case against Mr. Bo in the state media, not just in court. On Friday, official news outlets issued a chorus of commentaries that said the evidence against Mr. Bo, once the party leader in the sprawling southwestern metropolis of Chongqing, was overwhelming. The commentaries lauded the trial as fair and open while effectively prejudging Mr. Bo.
And party authorities seemed to be making their case against Mr. Bo in the state media, not just in the court. After Mr. Bo’s bold defense on the first day of the trial, state news organizations issued a chorus of commentaries that said the evidence against him on the corruption and embezzlement charges was overwhelming. The commentaries lauded the trial as fair and open while ridiculing Mr. Bo’s efforts to refute the evidence and effectively prejudging him.
“Confronted with the facts, Bo’s attitude was to flaunt his cunning and use a hundred kinds of denial,” said a commentary on the Web site of The Guangming Daily, a party newspaper. “The documents are there in black and white and the evidence is overwhelming. Bo Xilai’s self-defense collapsed instantly before the evidence, so that his sophistry was futile and laughable.”
“Confronted with the facts, Bo’s attitude was to flaunt his cunning and use a hundred kinds of denial,” said a commentary on the Web site of The Guangming Daily, a party newspaper. “The documents are there in black and white and the evidence is overwhelming. Bo Xilai’s self-defense collapsed instantly before the evidence, so that his sophistry was futile and laughable.”
The trial is likely to end on Saturday, and a verdict is expected within a couple of weeks.
The trial is likely to end on Saturday, and a verdict is expected within a couple of weeks.
Though less voluminous over all than on the trial’s opening day, the transcripts released on Friday did include some instances in which Mr. Bo criticized the prosecution’s main witnesses, including his wife, Ms. Gu, who appeared in a video recording talking about the family’s finances.
On Friday, Mr. Bo again upbraided the prosecution’s main witnesses, including his wife, Gu Kailai, who appeared in a video recording being interrogated about the family’s finances.
“How much of it is believable?” Mr. Bo said of Ms. Gu’s testimony. “She has become crazy, and she often tells lies. She was mentally unstable and under enormous pressure from the investigators to inform on me.”
“How much of it is believable?” Mr. Bo said of Ms. Gu’s testimony. “She has become crazy, and she often tells lies. She was mentally unstable and under enormous pressure from the investigators to inform on me.”
Witnesses for the prosecution painted a vivid portrait of family life within the Bo clan, which appeared to be awash in favors from Xu Ming, a young tycoon. According to testimony, Mr. Bo’s youngest son, Bo Guagua, went to Africa in 2011 at Mr. Xu’s expense, and he brought back a chunk of meat for his father that he insisted should be eaten raw. The father had it cooked, though, to the young Mr. Bo’s disappointment, and the family feasted on it for a month.
Witnesses for the prosecution painted a vivid portrait of family life within the Bo clan, which appeared to be awash in favors from Mr. Xu. According to testimony, Mr. Bo’s younger son, Bo Guagua, went to Africa in 2011 at Mr. Xu’s expense, and brought back for his father a slab of meat from a rare animal that he insisted should be eaten raw. The father had it cooked, though, to the young Mr. Bo’s disappointment, and the family feasted on it for a month. Mr. Xu also paid for a trip in 2011 to China by Mr. Bo, then a graduate student at Harvard, and 40 of his fellow students. As for the villa, Mr. Bo helped his wife plan the aesthetics — “he’s an expert in home renovation and decoration,” Ms. Gu testified.
Mr. Xu also paid for a trip to China in 2011 by Mr. Bo, a graduate student at Harvard then, and 40 fellow students. As for the villa, Mr. Bo helped his wife plan the aesthetics — “he’s an expert in home renovation and decoration,” Ms. Gu said in her testimony.
In August 2012, Ms. Gu was convicted of the murder of the British businessman, Neil Heywood, and given a suspended death sentence, essentially a life term in prison. The death of Mr. Heywood and the ensuing scandal led to the downfall of Mr. Bo. He is charged with taking bribes, embezzlement and abuse of power. The embezzlement charge accuses him of taking $800,000 in government money earmarked for a construction project, and the abuse of power charge accuses him of trying to obstruct an investigation into Mr. Heywood’s murder.
Testimony for much of Friday centered on the villa, in Cannes, which documents in France show was owned by a Frenchman, Patrick Devillers, a friend of the Bo family. According to testimony from Mr. Devillers and others read aloud in court on Friday, Mr. Devillers was a frontman in the purchase of the villa by Ms. Gu, who bought the villa more than a decade ago with $3.2 million from Mr. Xu. Prosecutors said Ms. Gu used different people in the French company that managed the property as fronts to hide her ownership of the villa.
Testimony on Friday centered on the villa, which French documents show was owned by Patrick Devillers, a French friend of the Bo family. According to testimony from Mr. Devillers and others read aloud in court, Mr. Devillers was a frontman in the purchase; Ms. Gu bought the villa more than a decade ago as an investment for her son with $3.2 million from Mr. Xu, the tycoon.
Mr. Heywood, a business associate of the Bo family, was brought in to hold Ms. Gu’s shares in the villa in 2007, and then removed in 2012. Prosecutors said he then demanded $2.2 million from Ms. Gu and threatened her son, Bo Guagua. She poisoned Mr. Heywood in November 2011 because of the threats.
Prosecutors said Ms. Gu used different people in the French company that managed the property as fronts to hide her ownership. Mr. Heywood, an old associate, was brought in to hold Ms. Gu’s shares in the villa in 2007, and then removed in 2011. Prosecutors said he then demanded $2.2 million from Ms. Gu and threatened her son, Bo Guagua; she poisoned Mr. Heywood in November 2011 because of the threats.
The story spun by prosecutors on Friday was somewhat different from the one that officials presented in the August 2012 trial of Ms. Gu. Then, officials said Mr. Heywood had demanded about $22 million, a much larger sum, mostly as compensation for a failed property project in Chongqing, and partly for a French project. He made threats to the son to get that money, those prosecutors said, and that made Ms. Gu fearful. At the time, accounts of Ms. Gu’s trial, which was closed to the public, were posted online and relayed to journalists by people who had been allowed into the courtroom.
In a sign of inconsistencies among official accounts, the story spun by prosecutors on Friday was somewhat different from the one that officials presented at Ms. Gu’s trial. At that time, officials said Mr. Heywood had demanded a much larger sum, $22 million, mostly as compensation for a failed property project in Chongqing. He threatened the son in efforts to get that money, those prosecutors said, and that made Ms. Gu fearful.
Bo Guagua, who has just started classes at Columbia Law School, did not respond to an e-mail request for comment on Friday. Family members of Mr. Heywood could not immediately be reached for comment.
Bo Guagua, who has just started classes at Columbia Law School, did not respond to an e-mail request for comment on Friday. Family members of Mr. Heywood could not be reached for comment.
The police expanded their security cordon around the courthouse by an additional block on Friday and, by some eyewitness accounts, appeared to dispatch plainclothes officers to intimidate leftist supporters of Mr. Bo and assorted petitioners who had flocked to the courthouse and drawn the attention of international news media. The crowds of onlookers that hovered near the courthouse on Thursday had thinned out considerably by Friday.
Officials from the court, the police and state security met late Thursday in Jinan to review the handling of the trial, according to a person briefed on the case. They determined that it was under control despite the uproar caused by Mr. Bo’s spirited defense on Thursday. “The authorities did not seem to think that was so unexpected,” the person said.
Although the official transcripts posted online on Thursday faithfully reflected the bulk of the hearings, some colorful highlights were omitted, according to the person briefed by witnesses in the courtroom, who also has ties to justice officials.
There was no doubt, though, that the unveiling of testimony on Friday was more tightly managed. Though more than an hour of video testimony from Ms. Gu was played in court, officials posted only an 11-minute clip online, he said. Ms. Gu spoke to an interrogator about expensive items that Mr. Xu had bought for the Bo family, including abalone, airplane tickets and a Segway-like vehicle that the son wanted.
In one exchange, after testimony from Ms. Gu was read in which she described taking cash from a safe that she shared with Mr. Bo, Mr. Bo’s court-appointed defense lawyer, Li Guifang, countered that Ms. Gu’s account was questionable because she faced a possible death sentence at the time. “So she could say anything to reduce her sentence,” said the person briefed by witnesses. “He raised these doubts.”
Mr. Bo denied any knowledge of payments by Mr. Xu, which some legal scholars said was smart strategy. “Bo’s defense today is that he was unaware of the bribes Gu took, which stands legally,” said Jiang Tianyong, a liberal lawyer and rights defender. “If he was unaware and took no part in the bribe-taking, he has no responsibility, even if he is married to Gu.”
At another point, Mr. Bo vented anger against Tang Xiaolin, a state company manager who testified via video to having given Mr. Bo 1.1 million renminbi, or $180,000, in bribes in appreciation for help with business deals. According to the person briefed on the proceedings, Mr. Bo stated that if Mr. Tang appeared in court, he would slap him across the face harder than he had hit Wang Lijun — a reference to a run-in Mr. Bo had with Mr. Wang, his former police chief in Chongqing, before Mr. Wang fled in February 2012 to the American Consulate in Chengdu, where he exposed evidence that Ms. Gu had murdered Mr. Heywood.
Officials from the court, the police and state security met late Thursday in Jinan, according to a person familiar with the situation, but determined that the situation was basically normal despite the uproar caused by Mr. Bo’s spirited defense. “Yesterday people around the country and even inside the courtroom were surprised by the degree of openness and Bo’s refutals of the charges, but the authorities did not seem to think that was so unexpected and considered the situation to be under control,” the person said. “The main thing was to modify the propaganda, mainly out of Beijing.”
It was clear that Friday’s testimony was vetted longer before being posted than Thursday’s testimony, and that Mr. Bo and his lawyers were given fewer opportunities to rebut evidence, at least as shown to the public.
The court showed more than an hour of Ms. Gu’s testimony on all three charges against Mr. Bo, though the court posted only an 11-minute clip online, according to the person briefed on Friday’s proceedings.
In the video that was made public, Ms. Gu spoke to an interrogator about expensive items that Mr. Xu had bought for the Bo family, including abalone, airplane tickets and a Segway-like vehicle that the son wanted. Asked whether Mr. Bo knew about the purchases, Ms. Gu appeared equivocal and said, “He should know; our relationship is very close.” Pressed harder, she said, “Anyway, we all know.”
She also said Mr. Bo helped Mr. Xu acquire a local soccer team and get land for a hot-air balloon venture, but did not mention any bribes paid specifically for those actions. In the video, Ms. Gu, who is now serving a prison sentence, sat at a desk in a short-sleeved shirt, looking pale and much slimmer than she did at a court appearance a year ago.
Mr. Bo denied any knowledge of payments by Mr. Xu, which some legal scholars said was a good strategy. “Bo’s defense today is that he was unaware of the bribes Gu took, which stands legally,” said Jiang Tianyong, a liberal lawyer and rights defender. “If he was unaware and took no part in the bribe-taking, he has no responsibility, even if he is married to Gu.”
“Bo’s self-defense is very effective, even more effective than that by his lawyers,” he added.
Outside the courthouse on Friday, there was a clampdown in some corners of Jinan, in a shift from a more open atmosphere on Thursday. The local police tried to shoo away Chinese journalists from progressive state media outlets who were not specifically accredited to cover the trial, though foreign and some official media reporters appeared to work unimpeded.
Chris Buckley contributed reporting from Hong Kong. Patrick Zuo contributed research from Jinan, and Mia Li from Beijing.
Chris Buckley contributed reporting from Hong Kong. Patrick Zuo contributed research from Jinan, and Mia Li from Beijing.
