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Former Chinese political star Bo Xilai (C) is shown on trial in Jinan, east China's Shandong province, August 22, 2013/AFP

Focus on China

Fallen Chinese political star Bo Xilai goes on trial

“If this were a matter of justice, would they be so nervous?” he said, referring to the massive police presence.

He ranked Bo alongside respected Chinese leaders Deng Xiaoping and Zhu Rongji, saying “his governance was too great” and “the whole world should learn from him”.

“It doesn’t matter how he is sentenced, it matters how history is written,” he added.

The galleries were packed, the court said, with five relatives of the accused present, two assistants, 19 journalists and 84 members of the public. But no foreign media organisations were granted entry.

Bo’s dramatic downfall began in November 2011 when British businessman Neil Heywood was found dead in a hilltop hotel room.

Gu was last year given a suspended death sentence normally commuted to life imprisonment for Heywood’s murder. Bo’s police chief Wang Lijun, whose flight to a US consulate blew the scandal open, got 15 years in jail for his role in covering up the killing, defection and other crimes.

Bo’s own long awaited trial is expected to proceed swiftly, with a guilty verdict all but certain and the sentence believed to have been decided beforehand.

Analysts say Bo’s revival of the trappings of Mao era China including mass concerts singing “red” songs while party chief in Chongqing alarmed sections of China’s top leadership, who saw the campaigns as a brash return to a bygone era of strongman rule.

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