China's largely rubber stamp parliament has expelled disgraced former senior politician Bo Xilai, state news agency Xinhua said today, paving the way for formal criminal charges to be laid against him.
The expulsion removes Bo's immunity from prosecution as a member of parliament. Xinhua said the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, China's parliament, "announced the termination of Bo Xilai's post" as the deputy to the parliament.
The announcement comes before the Communist Party holds a key congress, which opens on Nov. 8, that will unveil the country's new central leadership.
Bo's wife, Gu Kailai, and his former police chief, Wang Lijun, have both been jailed over the scandal, which stems from the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood while Bo was Communist Party chief of the southwestern city of Chongqing.
The government last month accused Bo of corruption and of bending the law to hush up the murder.
Before Bo is charged and tried, investigators must first complete an inquiry and indict him, but China's prosecutors and courts come under party control and are unlikely to challenge the accusations.
A lawyer for Bo, who has been employed by the family to represent him, said on Thursday he was unable to say whether the government would allow him to represent Bo when the case comes to trial.
Bo, 63, was widely seen as pursuing a powerful spot in the new leadership before his career unraveled after Wang fled to a U.S. consulate for more than 24 hours in February and alleged that Bo's wife had poisoned Heywood.
An official account of Wang's trial in September said Wang fled to the U.S. consulate in Chengdu, southwest China, after Bo beat him and stripped him of his police job following Wang's decision to confront Bo with the murder allegations against Gu.
Bo had used his post as Communist Party chief of Chongqing, in southwest China, to present the municipality as a showcase for his mix of populist policies and bold spending.
