Trial of China's Bo Xilai opens next week, says Beijing-backed paper
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BEIJING (REUTERS) - China's disgraced former senior politician Bo Xilai will go on trial next week, a Beijing-backed Hong Kong newspaper said on Friday, in what would be the final act of a drama that has shaken the ruling Communist Party.
Bo, once a contender for top leadership in the world's second-largest economy, was ousted in China's biggest political scandal in two decades last year following his wife's murder of a British businessman, Mr Neil Heywood.
The mainland China-run Ta Kung Pao newspaper said on its website that Bo's trial would start on Monday in the southern city of Guiyang and last three days. It cited "well-informed Beijing sources", but gave no details.
One of Bo's lawyers, Li Guifang, declined to comment when reached by telephone. A court official in Guiyang who gave his family name as Li said he had not heard anything about the case.
