Scandal-hit Chinese former top cop Wang Lijun handed 15 years jail term

China's ruling Communist Party took a big step towards sealing the fate of fallen politician Bo Xilai on Monday, when a court jailed his former police chief for 15 years over charges that indicated Bo tried to derail a murder inquiry. The Intermediate People's Court in China's Sichuan province handed down the prison sentence against Bo's right-hand man Wang Lijun, 52, the former vice-mayor and police chief of Chongqing city, after finding him guilty on four charges, including seeking to cover up the November 2011 murder of a British businessman, Neil Heywood, by Bo's wife, Gu Kailai.

The sentencing of Wang for misuse of power, defection and corruption has now paved the way for the prosecution of the fallen Xilai, ahead of a generational power transfer in the ruling Communist party. The court also cancelled his political rights for an year, but gave him a lighter sentence than the 20 years proposed by the prosecution in view of his exposing the involvement of Gu Kailai, wife of the disgraced Xilai, in Heywood's murder.

Wang sought asylum in the US consulate in Chengdu in February, triggering a political crisis that saw Bo sacked and his wife charged with murder ahead of a transfer of power to a new generation of leaders in China's ruling Communist Party. The scandal, the messiest, faced by the Communist party leadership triggered an intense jostling in the party, ruling the world's most populous nation since 1949.

The case ended the career of Bo, a senior Communist Party leader who was in the running for top position in the nine-member standing committee of the central committee of the CPC. It was not immediately clear if Bo who was named by Wang in his deposition would be hauled up.

In his testimony, Wang implicated Bo alleging that the Party leader had rebuked and slapped him over the probe into Gu's case. But an official account of the trial did not identify Bo by name and merely suggested that he knew his wife was suspected for the murder of British businessman in November 2011, but took no action.

This offence under the Chinese law carries punishment of 10 years in prison.