Bo Xilai tells court he was victim of love triangle

China's most sensational trial in decades has ended, with the disgraced politician, Bo Xilai, hinting at a love triangle involving his wife and former right hand man - both key witnesses against him.

JINAN, China // China's most sensational trial in decades ended yesterday, with the disgraced politician, Bo Xilai, hinting at a love triangle involving his wife and former right hand man - both key witnesses against him - as he made last-ditch efforts to redeem his reputation.

The prosecution countered by saying Mr Bo should be punished because he showed no remorse during the five-day corruption trial in Jinan, aimed at capping a scandal set off by his wife's murder of a British businessman and resulting in Mr Bo's purge from top posts and the Communist Party.

In testimony, Mr Bo denounced both his wife, Gu Kailai, as crazy and his former police chief, Wang Lijun, as dishonest, as he sought to portray himself as an official who worked too hard to scrutinise his family's affairs and who was surrounded by conniving, duplicitous people.

"He (Wang) was secretly in love with Gu Kailai, his emotions were tangled and he could not extricate himself," Mr Bo told the court.

Prosecutors said yesterday that the trial proceedings have shown adequate proof of Bo's guilt on charges of netting about Dh15.8 million through bribes and embezzlement, along with abuse of power in interfering with the murder investigation. A date for the verdict was been given.

"The defendant's crimes are extremely grave, and he also refuses to admit guilt. As such, the circumstances do not call for a lenient punishment but a severe one, in accordance with the law," the prosecutor said, according to a transcript of court proceedings.

Though Mr Bo's downfall has widely been perceived as the result of his defeat in party infighting ahead of last fall's once-a-decade leadership transition, officials have taken unusual steps to portray his trial as a legitimate prosecution of his misdeeds, including the release of detailed, though presumably vetted, transcripts of the proceedings.

Mr Bo mounted an unexpectedly vigorous defence against the criminal charges, recanting earlier confessions and rarely expressing contrition as he sought to lay the blame for most of the misdeeds on his wife and others. However, he refrained from using the trial as a stage to denounce the administration and his political opponents.

Most importantly, he acknowledged the party's legitimacy while holding firm to his denial of the charges - a move that at once seeks to retain his honour and appeal to party loyalists.

"I know I am not a perfect person. I had a bad temper and acted subjectively, and I made serious faults and mistakes," Bo said. "I deeply feel that I failed to govern my family and it had a negative effect on the state. I sincerely accept the investigation from the party and the judicial departments, but the charge of corruption is not true."