AFP
A top Chinese forensic expert, who had cast doubt on the evidence surrounding a British businessman's murder by the wife of fallen political star Bo Xilai, has announced her resignation ahead of Bo's much-awaited trial beginning on Thursday, according to official media.
Wang Xuemei stepped down as vice-president of the Chinese Forensic Medicine Association, the ruling Chinese Communist Party-linked Global Times newspaper said Monday after state media confirmed at the weekend the trial date of Bo, who was the Party chief of Chongqing until his expulsion in October last year.
She had previously questioned the government's inquest into the murder of Neil Heywood, for which Bo's wife Gu Kailai was convicted of poisoning.
A video statement posted online by Wang over the weekend, however, mentioned an entirely different case as being linked to her decision to quit.
In the video, Wang said she couldn't allow her name to be linked to an academic organization that offers "ridiculous and irresponsible" conclusions.
The move was welcomed by some Chinese media commentators.
"We would like to pay tribute to Wang Xuemei not only because of her long-standing professional commitment, but because she was brave enough to expose shady dealings in the industry, as well as vowing to defend the bottom line of the industry to the death," the Beijing Youth Daily newspaper said in an editorial on Monday.
Disputed accounts
Wang, who retains her official post as vice-director at China's Supreme People's Procuratorate, had hit out in public at official accounts of the August 2012 trial of Gu, who is serving a suspended death sentence for Heywood's murder.
According to Wang, who said she was never given access to the evidence, official media accounts lacked sufficient proof that Heywood died from cyanide poisoning, which she said would have left his body obviously discolored.
Wang said at the time her intention was to point out discrepancies in details that have been made public from the Gu trial.
Bo, 64, was indicted last month at the Jinan Intermediate People's Court in Shandong and accused of receiving more than 20 million yuan (U.S. $3.26 million) in bribes and of embezzling another 5 million yuan (U.S. $815,000).
State media said Bo "took advantage of his position as a civil servant to seek gains for others ... [and] accepted bribes in the form of large amounts of money and property."
According to the charge sheet, Bo had embezzled a large amount of public money and abused his power.
Bo will face trial at the Jinan Intermediate People's Court on Thursday at 8:30 a.m., the official Xinhua news agency reported.
Security buildup
Petitioners from across China said they are currently converging on Jinan in large groups in the hope of witnessing Bo's trial.
Eyewitnesses said the authorities had already begun a huge security buildup in the area around the court buildings, with large numbers of police vans and officers in plain clothes patrolling the area.
"There are police, and there are plainclothes officers and vehicles," said Shanghai-based petitioner Yu Chunxian, who traveled to Jinan Monday to watch developments unfold ahead of the trial.
"There are several dozen minivans there, and they have all the equipment."
She said officers and police vehicles were stationed at all four roads on a nearby intersection.
Fellow petitioner Zhang Haiyan said she wants to watch Bo's trial to see if the law will be genuinely implemented, or whether the authorities will cover up the truth.
And Shanghai-based Wu Yufen said she knows it will be well-nigh impossible to secure a gallery seat for the trial, but she still wants to see how it is conducted.
"I want to see if justice is done," Wu said. "I hope that we will see a fair decision."
Reduced charges?
Bo's trial comes after the sentencing of his former police chief Wang Lijun to 15 years' imprisonment for corruption and defection last September.
While Bo is nearly certain to be found guilty, Chinese political analysts say his status as the "princeling" son of revolutionary veteran Bo Yibo means that the current administration under fellow "princeling" Xi Jinping has already considerably relaxed the charges against him.
Analysts say the trial will be carefully orchestrated, and will likely result in a lengthy jail term similar to that handed down in comparable cases in recent years.
Jason Z. Yin, a professor of strategy management and international business at Seton Hall University, said the Chinese leadership has already planned the outcome of the trial.
"At the most, he will get life imprisonment, but he is likely to get something in the region of 20 years," Yin said in an interview on Sunday.
Beijing-based lawyer Li Jinglin said he also believes a death sentence or suspended death sentence are unlikely.
"Abuse of power can only receive a limited jail term, and an unlimited jail term in cases where the sum of money involved is 'especially large,'" Li said.
"In such cases, any additional sentences are just folded into the unlimited [life] sentence," he said.
Public opinion divided
He said public opinion is still sharply divided over Bo, whose case has rocked the Communist Party with its biggest political crisis since the 1989 military crackdown on protesters in Tiananmen Square.
"Some people make out he's some kind of demigod, while some say he is evil," Li said.
According to Yin, Xi is treading a fine line between Maoists in the left wing of the Party, who were strong supporters of Bo's revolutionary songs and anti-crime campaigns in Chongqing, and supporters of former president Jiang Zemin, who used the scandal to regain influence in the corridors of power.
"If he were to move against [Bo's mentor, former security chief] Zhou Yongkang, there's no certainty that he would get enough votes in the Politburo standing committee," he said.
Bo had once been widely tipped to rise from his post as Chongqing Party secretary to the all-powerful Standing Committee of the Party's Politburo.
But the flight of his police chief Wang Lijun to the U.S. Consulate in Chengdu on Feb. 6, 2012, signaled that all was not well with Bo's controversial "Chongqing model" of revolutionary ballads and large-scale anti-crime campaigns.
Reported by Hai Nan for RFA's Cantonese Service, and by Yang Jiadai for the Mandarin Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.
