Court to announce Bo's verdict on Oct 25

Former Chongqing Party chief Bo Xilai is sentenced to life in prison at a court in Jinan, Shandong province, Sept 22, 2013. [Xie Huanchi / Xinhua]

JINAN - The Shandong Higher People's Court announced Monday that it will announce the decision on Bo Xilai's appeal case at 10 am on October 25.

Bo was charged with bribery, embezzlement and abuse of power at a trial held at the Jinan Intermediate People's Court from August 22 to 26, and the court sentenced him to life imprisonment on September 22.

He did not accept his sentence and submitted an appeal to the Shandong Higher People's Court, which decided to hear his appeal, the higher court announced on October 9.

The 64-year-old Bo is former secretary of the Chongqing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and a former member of the CPC Central Committee Political Bureau.

He was found guilty of taking bribes totaling 20.44 million yuan (about $3.3 million), either personally or through his family members, between 1999 and 2012.

The intermediate court also convicted Bo of stealing 5 million yuan of government funds and of having abused his power when handling the murder of British citizen Neil Heywood by his wife, Bogu Kailai, and an assistant, as well as the defection of Wang Lijun, then Chongqing's police chief and vice mayor.

Bo was deprived of political rights for life, and his personal assets were also confiscated.

The illicit money and goods that Bo accepted as bribes or embezzled have been recovered or compensated, according to the court judgement.

Bo and his lawyer had denied all three charges but the court held that there was sufficient and authentic evidence to support prosecutors' charges.