Higher court agrees to hear Bo Xilai appeal

BEIJING, Oct. 9 (UPI) -- A Chinese provincial court said it will hear the appeal of a former high-level Chinese Communist Party official convicted of corruption last month.

Bo Xilai, 64, was sentenced to life in prison for corruption, abuse of power and embezzlement by the Jinan Intermediate People's Court in east China's Shandong Province Sept. 22.

He submitted an appeal to the Shandong Higher People's Court, which agreed to a trial, Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua reported Wednesday.

Bo's convictions marked a dramatic fall for the man once considered a rising star in the Communist Party and the Chinese government.

His late father, Bo Yibo, was a colleague of Chairman Mao Zedong and the late leader Deng Xiaoping. Bo Xilai had served in a series of government roles that allowed him to progress from a city mayor and provincial governor to a member of the policy-making Politburo.