Sentence cut for Chinese official linked to Bo Xilai

A Communist Party secretary connected to disgraced top government official Bo Xilai had his 15-year sentence commuted by five months, according to court documents.

Xia Zeliang, 57, former chief of Chongqing’s Nan’an district, is currently residing in Tiebei prison in the Northeast China city of Changchun.

Changchun Intermediate People’s Court reduced his sentence so that he will be released on May 17, 2027, according to documents published November 8 on China Judgments Online, a website run by the China’s Supreme People’s Court.

Xia provided the poison containing cyanide to Bo’s wife Bogu Kailai, who used it to murder a British citizen Neil Heywood, caixin.com reported.

Heywood was poisoned at the Nanshan Lijing Holiday Hotel in Nan’an district under Xia’s jurisdiction. Xia was seized by investigators in March 2012 for his involvement in the murder.

Bogu received a death sentence with a two-year reprieve for intentional homicide in August 2012.

While in prison, Xia showed repentance, obeyed prison rules, actively received education transformation, attended ideological, cultural education and vocational training, and worked hard to complete labor tasks, the documents said.

In 2014, Xie was sentenced to 15 years in prison for bribery and illegal possession of ammunition. He accepted bribes totaling of about 25 million yuan ($3.9 million) from 2003 to 2012 and illegally possessed 366 bullets.

Xia was also one of the 21 Chongqing officials punished over a sex video that went viral in 2012, the Xinhua News Agency reported.