Ex-police chief in Bo Xilai scandal faces swift Chinese justice

CHENGDU, China (AP) - At the height of his career, Wang Lijun led a police crackdown on the violent underworld in a sprawling metropolis, arresting hundreds of gangsters and government officials, some of whom were sentenced and executed in a matter of months. Now the former police chief is in the hands of the opaque Chinese justice he once brandished against others.

The youthful looking 52-year-old Wang will face charges of defection, bribery and other crimes on Tuesday in a closely choreographed trial expected to be speedy.

He is a central figure in China's messiest political scandal in decades that led to the ousting of senior politician Bo Xilai, a murder conviction against Mr Bo's wife and the roiling of the Communist Party leadership in the midst of a delicate transfer of power.

Wang triggered the scandal when he unexpectedly went to the US Consulate last November with explosive information: a British businessman had been murdered with the involvement of Mr Bo's family. His almost certain conviction marks the downfall of a prominent, colourful police chief, who often skirted the law he made a flamboyant show of enforcing.