MCLC: Bo to plead guilty

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: pjmooney <pjmooney at me.com>
Subject: Bo to plead guilty
***********************************************************

Source: Reuters (7/31/13):
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/31/us-china-politics-bo-idUSBRE96U0J
E20130731

China's Bo to plead guilty, but maybe not to all charges-sources
By Benjamin Kang Lim and Ben Blanchard

BEIJING, July 31 (Reuters) - Disgraced Chinese leader Bo Xilai has
agreed to plead guilty at a trial likely to be held within weeks, three
sources said, in an apparent bid to earn a more lenient sentence and allow
authorities to close the door on the country's biggest political scandal
in decades.

But it was not clear if he would plead guilty to all or only some of
the charges of accepting bribes, corruption and abuse of power.

Bo's downfall is the country's most divisive political scandal since
the 1976 downfall of the Gang of Four at the end of the Cultural
Revolution.

President Xi Jinping is keen for Bo's trial to go off smoothly as he
pushes major economic reforms ahead of a closed-door party plenum in
September or October where he will need unstinted support from the party.

Reuters reported in February that Bo, one of the Communist Party's
high-flyers who fell from grace in early 2012, had refused to cooperate
with government investigators, staged a hunger strike twice and refused
to shave his beard in protest against what he deemed unfair treatment.

"Bo Xilai had initially refused to admit guilt and insisted on
defending himself," said a source with ties to the leadership and direct
knowledge of the matter, requesting anonymity due to the political
sensitivity of the case.
  
"But in a change of heart, he cooperated and will plead guilty (at his
trial) in the hope that he will receive a relatively lenient sentence,"
the source told Reuters.

It remains to be seen if his decision to plead guilty will hold until
the trial.

In China, defendants are presumed guilty until proven innocent and
those who refuse to cooperate are often given harsher sentences.

Other sources indicated Bo may not plead guilty to the abuse of power
charge. 

A source close to the family, who also spoke on condition of anonymity,
Said Bo will plead guilty, but should not be held accountable for crimes
committed by immediate family members. The source declined to elaborate.

The abuse of power charge is believed to be linked to the murder of
British businessman Neil Heywood by Bo's wife, Gu Kailai, when Bo was the
party chief in sprawling Chongqing city.

Gu was convicted of the murder last August and Bo's police chief, Wang
Lijun, was jailed for trying to cover up the crime.

A third source, also with ties to China's leadership, said Bo will
plead guilty to accepting bribes and corruption while he was mayor and
Communist Party boss of the northeastern city of Dalian between 1992 and
2000.

But Bo will deny the charge of abuse of power when he was party boss of
Chongqing, the source added.

"By pleading not guilty to the abuse of power charge, Bo wants to show
that he is a victim of a power struggle," the source told Reuters, also
requesting anonymity. The source did not elaborate.

After his appointment as party boss of Chongqing in 2007, Bo turned the
region into a showcase of revolution-inspired "red" culture, as well as
state led economic growth. He also won national attention with a crackdown
on organised crime.

Bo's populist ways and crime clean-up were welcomed by many of
Chongqing's 30 million residents, as well as others who hoped Bo could
take his Maoist policies nationwide. But his ambition and brash
self-promotion irked some top leaders.

Bo's lawyers Li Guifang and Wang Zhaofeng did not answer telephone
calls seeking comment on what his strategy will be at the trial.

He will be represented in court by his family-appointed lawyer Li, as
opposed to having a state-appointed attorney forced upon him as happened
to his wife, a fourth source with direct knowledge of the case told
Reuters.

(Additional reporting by Lucy Hornby; Editing by Bill Powell and Raju
Gopalakrishnan) ((ben.blanchard at thomsonreuters.com)(+86 10 6627
1201)(Reuters Messaging: ben.blanchard.thomsonreuters.com at reuters.net))

ENDS