China ex-police chief does not contest Bo scandal charges

CHENGDU, China (REUTERS) - A former police chief who revealed China's biggest political scandal in two decades admitted defection and did not contest charges of taking bribes and illegal surveillance at his two-day trial ending on Tuesday, a court official said.

Wang Lijun, ex-police chief of south-western Chongqing municipality, sought to conceal the murder of a British businessman by the wife of one of the nation's most senior and ambitious politicians, Bo Xilai, said an official account of the trial.

Foreign reporters were barred from attending the trial amid tight security around the court house. A spokesman for the Chengdu Intermediate Court read out a statement to reporters at in a nearby hotel, but no mention was made of Bo.

"The accused Wang Lijun volunarily gave himself up after committing the crime of defection, and then gave a truthful account of the main crimes involved in his defection," court spokesman Yang Yuguan said.