On the third day of the trial against disgraced Chinese leader Bo Xilai Saturday, prosecutors continued to accuse him of embezzling 5 million yuan ($817,000) of project funds as Wang Zhenggang, then director of the Dalian municipal bureau, testified in court.
The accusation was made at the Jinan Intermediate People's Court in east China's Shandong province, Xinhua reported.
The 64-year-old Bo is a former secretary of the Chongqing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China and a former member of the Central Committee Political Bureau.
More From This Section
On Saturday, prosecutors presented audio-visual recordings of Bo's wife, Bogu Kailai, when she was questioned Aug 10, as testimonies.
Prosecutors also read testimonies by Zhao Dongping, director of the Beijing Angdao law offices, and Che Hui, former secretary to Bo among several witnesses.
Prosecutors also presented the statement written by Bo suggesting that he asked Wang to remit five million yuan of project funds to the bank account provided by Bogu Kailai.
The evidences were examined by the prosecutors, the defendant and Bo's lawyers.
Bo claimed he did not intend to embezzle the funds, but said he should bear some responsibility for not having closely questioned the remittance of money to Bogu's account.
Bo said he took an "indulgent" attitude to the issue.
Prosecutors said the accusations about the illegal embezzlement of the project funds were presented clearly and the evidence was authentic.
In the first two days of trial, prosecutors accused Bo of accepting bribes worth about 21.8 million yuan ($3.5 million) from businessmen Tang Xiaolin and Xu Ming and embezzling five million yuan in public funds from the Dalian municipal government, but Bo denied the charges.
Meanwhile, a Jinan Intermediate People's Court spokesman said that the two lawyers representing Bo have been appointed by Bo himself.
Spokesman Liu Yanjie said at a press briefing Saturday that as far the court knew, Bo's relatives entrusted several different lawyers during the investigation stage of the case but, ultimately, Li and Wang were hired on Bo's choice and confirmation.