Disgraced Chinese politician Bo Xilai is to stand trial on Thursday as he faces charges of corruption, bribery and abuse of power.

The former party secretary of the major city of Chongqing fell from power last year. Bo's scandal exposed the murder of a British businessman by his wife and a thwarted defection bid by his former police chief.

On August 20th 2012, Bo-Gu Kailai, the wife of China's fallen Politburo member Bo Xilai, was given a suspended death sentence at her trial in Hefei, capital of China's eastern Anhui Province. She was found guilty for the intentional homicide of British businessman Neil Heywood.

During her trial, Gu admitted to poisoning Heywood, and alleged that a business dispute between the two led him to threaten her son, Bo Guagua.

In November 2011, Gu lured Heywood to a secluded hilltop retreat in Chongqing where she got him drunk. With the help of her family aide, she poured cyanide into his mouth which resulted in his death. Her aide, Zhang Xiaojun, was also convicted.

The court said Bo-Gu Kailai escaped the death penalty because she'd acted under the belief that her son's safety was being threatened, and also due to her "psychological impairment".

Almost invariably in China, such suspended death sentences are commuted to long prison terms.

Meanwhile, Bo-Gu Kailai's case also led to a series of incidents involving Bo's police chief Wang Lijun. After commiting the crime, Bo-Gu Kailai turned to Wang, who sent police officers to remove evidence. Unknown to Bo-Gu, Wang had recorded a phone conversation of her confession and had secretly saved samples from Heywood's heart and other evidence. After failing to bargain with Bo, the former Chongqing police chief fled to a U.S. consulate in early February for about 24 hours. In September 2012, Wang Lijun was sentenced to 15 years in prison for bending the law for selfish ends, defection, abuse of power and bribe-taking.

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