Fallen Official Is Defiant as Trial Begins in China
Source: NY Times
By EDWARD WONG and JONATHAN ANSFIELD
JINAN, China — Bo Xilai, the politician who fell from the heights of China’s elite, took a pugnacious and defiant stand on Thursday in the opening session of China’s most closely watched trial in decades, denying that he took millions of dollars in bribes and ridiculing his wife’s testimony against him.
According to lengthy transcripts the court released in an extraordinary show of transparency, Mr. Bo, 64, called his wife’s assertions that she had noticed anonymous deposits in their bank account “laughable.” He accused a businessman who had recorded video testimony against him of having “sold his soul.” And he discounted his earlier confession to taking bribes, saying he had made the statements to Communist Party investigators against his will, out of “opportunism and weakness” and under “mental strain.”
The authorities’ unexpected openness about the trial, including allowing a running court microblog and social media updates by state media organizations, turned what many had expected to be banal theater into a showcase of Mr. Bo’s defiance.
The dramatic day raised questions about how party officials would continue to steer a delicate political process that has captivated Chinese scrutinizing it on the Internet.
FULL story at link.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/23/world/asia/fallen-officials-trial-begins-in-china.html?partner=EXCITE&ei=5043&_r=0
Jinan Intermediate People's Court, via Associated Press
In this photo released by the court, Bo Xilai, center, on the first day of his corruption trial on Thursday at the Jinan Intermediate People's Court.
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