China's court cases of the year(9)

Former Chongqing Party chief Bo Xilai is sentenced to life in prison at a court in Jinan, Shandong province, on September 22. [Xie Huanchi / Xinhua]

Bo Xilai

The Shandong Higher People's Court on Oct 25 rejected Bo Xilai's appeal and upheld the original sentence of life imprisonment for bribery, embezzlement and abuse of power.

The Jinan Intermediate People's Court sentenced Bo, former secretary of the Chongqing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and former member of the Political Bureau of the party's Central Committee, to life imprisonment on September 22.

According to the original verdict, Bo was found guilty of accepting bribes totaling more than 20.44 million yuan (about 3.3 million US dollars), embezzling 5 million yuan and the circumstances of his abuse of power were described as "very serious."

He was sentenced to life in prison for accepting bribes, with his political rights deprived for life and all personal assets confiscated. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison for embezzlement and had personal assets of 1 million yuan confiscated. Bo was sentenced to seven years imprisonment for abuse of power.

The combined punishment for Bo's crimes was life imprisonment, with political rights deprived for life and all personal assets confiscated, the verdict said.