Bo Xilai calls wife "crazy" in vigorous defense at trial

Bo Xilai called his wife "crazy" and said she spoke under duress as a Chinese court aired testimony in which she detailed the dispute that led to the former Politburo member's ouster and corruption trial.           

In a written testimony presented by prosecutors yesterday, Gu Kailai said Bo knew that a family friend, Xu Ming, helped pay for them to buy a villa in France. Bo said he had didn't know how the house was bought.

"Gu has changed, she's crazy, she always tells lies," Bo said, according to a transcript released by the court in the eastern city of Jinan. "Under the circumstances, her mental state wasn't normal. Her handlers put huge pressure on her."

The testimony by Gu and other witnesses, as well as Bo's combative response and denial of the charges against him, provided insight in a case that threw the Communist Party into turmoil last year. In contrast with past political trials, the Jinan court has posted live updates on its microblog about the proceedings.

In a country where the party controls such trials, the decision to sift through so much evidence in court -- and reveal so much of the detail publicly --  may be a bid to lend credibility to the inevitable guilty verdict for Bo, according to Lin Yan an associate professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University's KoGuan Law School.

"All evidence, including that of key witnesses, has been presented and cross-examined," Lin said. "It seems that the government has been forced to satisfy Bo's procedural rights to build the legitimacy of the trial."

 
(Bloomberg)