The trial of Wang Lijun, the most senior Chinese communist party official to seek asylum at a foreign consulate, ended yesterday in the western city of Chengdu in the latest instalment of a political drama that has rocked the ruling elite.
Journalists and the public were kept away from the courtroom where the former police chief of Chongqing municipality appeared at a two-day trial on charges of defection, abuse of power, bribe-taking and “bending the law for selfish ends”. The court said it would announce a verdict in the near future.
In February, Mr Wang fled from Chongqing to the US consulate in Chengdu and requested asylum, claiming Bo Xilai, his former boss and one of China’s most powerful politicians, was trying to have him killed.