25 October 2013 Last updated at 04:47 BST
A court in China has rejected an appeal by the disgraced politician, Bo Xilai, against his conviction for bribery and corruption.
It means Mr. Bo will serve the life sentence he was originally given.
Mr. Bo was once one of China's rising political stars, tipped as a possible future leader, but he fell from grace spectacularly after his wife was accused of murdering a British businessman.
It was China's biggest political scandal in decades.
John Sudworth reports.
A court in China has rejected an appeal by the disgraced politician, Bo Xilai, against his conviction for bribery and corruption.
It means Mr. Bo will serve the life sentence he was originally given.
Mr. Bo was once one of China's rising political stars, tipped as a possible future leader, but he fell from grace spectacularly after his wife was accused of murdering a British businessman.
It was China's biggest political scandal in decades.
John Sudworth reports.
At the scene
John Sudworth
BBC News,
Shandong Province Higher People's Court
The roads around Shandong province's highest court were sealed off for the appeal ruling. Proof, if any were needed, of the sensitivity and importance of the extraordinary story of Bo Xilai as it entered what is almost certainly its final chapter.
There were no surprises. From the start, China's official state-run media has held up this case as demonstrating the strength and transparency of the justice system. In reality, it does anything but.
Bo Xilai's attempt to cover up his wife's apparent involvement in the murder of Neil Heywood, followed by his police chief's attempted defection at a US consulate, caused the Communist Party such embarrassment that it had no choice but to act. The inclination though was almost certainly already there. Bo's rare charisma and unusually open ambition in a grey-suited world won him enemies and made him a threat.
With all the points of his appeal rejected, the convoy swept out of court carrying the blue-blooded "princeling" to the same elite-party prison in which his communist-stalwart father once spent time. Bo senior, of course, made a come-back, so you should never say never. But for now, China's political elite have yet again shown themselves to be remarkably efficient at purging one of their own from their ranks.
John Sudworth
BBC News,
Shandong Province Higher People's Court
The roads around Shandong province's highest court were sealed off for the appeal ruling. Proof, if any were needed, of the sensitivity and importance of the extraordinary story of Bo Xilai as it entered what is almost certainly its final chapter.
There were no surprises. From the start, China's official state-run media has held up this case as demonstrating the strength and transparency of the justice system. In reality, it does anything but.
Bo Xilai's attempt to cover up his wife's apparent involvement in the murder of Neil Heywood, followed by his police chief's attempted defection at a US consulate, caused the Communist Party such embarrassment that it had no choice but to act. The inclination though was almost certainly already there. Bo's rare charisma and unusually open ambition in a grey-suited world won him enemies and made him a threat.
With all the points of his appeal rejected, the convoy swept out of court carrying the blue-blooded "princeling" to the same elite-party prison in which his communist-stalwart father once spent time. Bo senior, of course, made a come-back, so you should never say never. But for now, China's political elite have yet again shown themselves to be remarkably efficient at purging one of their own from their ranks.