Bo Xilai indicted for corruption, abuse of power in China

Disgraced Chinese leader Bo Xilai was today charged with bribery, embezzlement and abuse of power, paving the way for his trial next month in one of the biggest political scandals to hit the ruling Communist Party in decades.

The high-flying former Communist Party Chief of the 20 million people-strong Chongqing Municipality, Bo, was charged with bribery, embezzlement and power abuse, according to Jinan City People's Procuratorate in Shandong Province.

The 64-year-old Communist leader is currently under detention while his wife Gu Kailai is serving a suspended death sentence for the murder of a British national.

Bo's indictment paper was delivered to the Jinan City Intermediate People's Court today and the trial was expected to take place there next month, more than a year after he dropped from sight in one of China's messiest-ever political scandals.

The indictment comes months after Xi Jinping came to power and vowed to rid the country of corruption, saying, "Corruption is getting worse. The party will perish, so will our country...We should fight it with an iron fist."

Bo's trial is expected to follow the pattern of his wife Gu, who was given a suspended death sentence for the murder of Neil Heywood.

He was stated to be family friend who was also accused of being a go-between to shift their wealth abroad.

As a civil servant, Bo took advantage of his position to seek profits for others and accepted an "extremely large amount" of money and properties, state-run Xinhua news agency reported quoting the indictment paper.

He also embezzled a huge amount of public money and abused his power, seriously harming the interests of the state and people, the document said.

The indictment rests the speculation that China's new leadership headed by Xi is going slow to punish Bo, who was a princeling.

A high-profile leader, Bo was also regarded as top contender for the new seven member standing committee of the Communist Party China.

But all that vanished when Wang Lijun, the Police Chief of the Chongqing Municipality headed by Bo, defected to the US Consulate in Chengdu and sought refuge there last year fearing reprisals from him over investigations into the murder of the British national committed by Gu.