Fallen Chinese political star Bo Xilai continued his spirited defense against charges of corruption and bribe-taking leveled against him during the second day of his trial in the eastern city of Jinan on Friday, taking aim at the quality of evidence presented by the prosecution.
Bo described his wife Gu Kailai as "insane" during Friday's session, following her video testimony that he knew about shady dealings surrounding a luxury villa in the south of France, transcripts of the trial posted to the Jinan court's official account on the Twitter-like service Sina Weibo showed.
Gu, a former top lawyer who was handed a suspended death sentence in August 2012 for murdering British businessman Neil Heywood, testified that she had told Bo about a series of bribes.
Bo, the former Chongqing metropolis ruling Chinese Communist Party boss, retorted that Gu was mentally unstable, and that she had compared herself to a historical Chinese assassin, telling him she felt "heroic" when killing Heywood.
Gu testifies
Bo Xilai's wife Gu Kailai, convicted last year of murdering British businessman Neil Heywood, gives a recorded testimony during Bo's trial, Aug. 23, 2013. AFP
Photo: RFA
In testimony recorded earlier this month, a thin and pale-looking Gu said she had murdered Heywood for fear that he would kidnap and kill the couple's son, Bo Guagua, amid a bitter dispute with the family.
Gu, who reportedly refused to testify in person, said she had told Bo about airline tickets and other items provided by business tycoon Xu Ming, who prosecutors said had bribed Bo to the tune of 20.7 million yuan (U.S. $3.4 million).
Bo replied: "She is insane now and she often tells lies. The investigators placed enormous pressure on her to expose me when she was mentally disordered."
He said Gu had compared herself to Jing Ke, who more than 2,000 years ago tried and failed to kill the man who would become the first emperor of a unified China.
Second charge denied
The charismatic and once-powerful Bo on Friday denied the second of the three charges against him: that of embezzling five million yuan of public funds.
The third accusation, abuse of power, has yet to be addressed, but could be dealt with in a Saturday session announced by official media as Friday's session ended.
Bo has largely conducted his own defense, although he has access to lawyers, and was shown cross-examining Xu over allegations surrounding a football club, a hot air balloon, and the purchase of a French villa in television footage released by state broadcaster CCTV on Friday.
But top Beijing rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang said Bo's defense may have been spirited, but didn't detract from the charges against him.
"I am guessing that they still maintain the charges against him, because it would be very hard in reality for them to drop them," Pu said.
"His defense has focused on the original logic of the evidence presented, and it's unlikely to influence the final result very much."
Lengthy jail term?Analysts say Bo is almost certain to be found guilty and handed a lengthy jail term, possibly in the guise of a suspended death sentence.
"Everyone who had anything to do with Bo Xilai, including officials at the time, intellectuals, and business executives understood his family background and knew that he was corrupt," said Jiang Weiping, a Canada-based political analyst and former journalist with the official Xinhua news agency.
Jiang, who served six years in prison on charges of revealing state secrets after he wrote articles exposing official corruption, including about Bo's tenure in Dalian, said the extension of the trial for a further day had likely been triggered by a need to switch tactics.
"I think they planned for two possible scenarios," he said.
"Bo's retraction of his confession...and his spirited defense has had a big impact in China and overseas...so I think the authorities just reverted to the second scenario."
While his naked ambition and strong-arm tactics appear to have ruffled feathers in Beijing, Bo's populist brand of politics won supporters across China, some of whom converged on Jinan for his trial.
Supporters heldMeanwhile, Sichuan-based rights activist Huang Qi, who founded the Tianwang rights website, said at least nine people, believed to be Bo's supporters, had been detained outside the court buildings since the trial had started.
"They had detained a total of nine people by about noon [on Thursday]," Huang said in an interview. "This was witnessed in person by our volunteers on the ground."
"The authorities are taking a firm line with ordinary people and detaining them, as well as extending the police line outwards by about 100 meters [320 feet]."
Jinan petitioner Liu Guiqin said several hundred petitioners and Bo supporters from across China had arrived outside the court building, but had been held back by a heavily policed exclusion zone 100 meters from the entrance.
"They came from other provinces, some from Chongqing, and a lot of them were singing Bo Xilai's praises," Liu said. "They said Bo Xilai was an upright official, and some even got out banners."
"They were shouting the words 'Long Live Mao Zedong!' and 'Long Live the Chinese Communist Party!'," she said.
"They detained four Bo supporters."
Public discussionsMaoist activist Gao Xianming said he had gone to watch the scene outside the court buildings, where a number of Bo's supporters were holding public discussions about his welfare policies during his tenure in Chongqing.
He said he saw one in the group detained.
"They were talking to him, telling him not to go over to the court buildings," Gao said.
A second Jinan-based petitioner, Li Hongwei, said he was detained on Thursday by state security police, regular police and officials from his Communist Party neighborhood committee, and was currently being prevented from leaving his home.
Shanghai petitioner Jin Yuezhong said she had arrived in Jinan on Wednesday with a group of around 20 fellow activists, whose phones had been disrupted shortly after arrival. Others reported via Chinese rights groups that they had been surrounded by police, who searched their hotel rooms.
And former Chongqing village Party secretary Cao Run said he had received a phone call from police on Wednesday, warning him not to make the trip to Jinan, as he had originally planned.
"We need to see both sides of this situation," Cao said. "He may have broken the law at the time, but as a defendant, he should have the right to defend himself."
"We can't prevent him from defending himself just because he did a lot of bad things."
Reported by Yang Fan for RFA's Mandarin Service, and by Hai Nan for the Cantonese Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.
AFP PHOTO/CCTV
