Hong Kong (CNN) -- The former Chinese police chief who attempted to defect to the United States, triggering one of China's biggest political scandals, has been jailed for 15 years. 
 
 Wang Lijun, who was tried last week, was found guilty by the Chengdu City Intermediate People's Court of bending the law for selfish ends, defection, abuse of power and bribe-taking, court spokesman Yang Yuquan said Monday. 
 
 Until he sought refuge at the U.S. Consulate in February, Wang was the right-hand man of disgraced Chongqing Party chief Bo Xilai, who was stripped of his titles in April because of an unspecified "serious breach of party discipline." Bo has not been seen in public since. 
 
 Wang, 52, could have faced execution, since bribe-taking can carry the death penalty in China, depending on the amount involved and the seriousness of the case. Wang was accused in court of accepting bribes and property worth around 3.05 million yuan (around U.S. $480,000) for personal favors. 
 
 He received nine years for this offense, with a further seven added for "bending" the law, two for defection and two years for abuse of power -- though the court decided on a "combined" term of 15 years, taking into account his cooperation with authorities, Yang told reporters. He was also stripped of his "political rights" for one year. 
 
 Read more: Wang Lijun: the cop at the heart of Bo scandal 
 
 Wang didn't contest the charges, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency, which published details of the case. Wang has no plans to appeal the sentence, Yang said Monday. 
 
 The case also brought to light the first suggestion that Bo knew as early as January that his wife, Gu Kailai, was suspected of murder. 
 
 Read more: China's Bo Xilai 'implicated' in murder 
 
 After a one-day trial in August, Gu was found guilty of poisoning British businessman Neil Heywood in a hotel room in Chongqing last November. During her trial, she admitted pouring poison into his mouth, provided by a family aide who was also convicted of the crime. 
 
 According to Xinhua, prosecutors said Wang knew "perfectly well" that Gu was suspected of murder, but deliberately covered up for her so she would not be held legally responsible for Heywood's death -- a fact that was repeated during Monday's court session, Yang said. 
 
 Read more: Bo looms large over party leadership 
 
 The court was told that Wang later abandoned his efforts to conceal her crime when relations between the two became strained. 
 
 Wang said in his confession that Gu "turned hostile toward me, taking a different attitude from before when contacting me. She was not so warm as before and began to guard herself against me," Xinhua said. She was worried about her crime being exposed, and he was "not pleased" that Gu had told an increasing number of people about the incident. 
 
 Read more: Gu Kailai, the woman who had it all 
 
 Then in late January, Wang told "the then leading official of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Chongqing Committee" -- the position Bo held -- that Gu was "highly suspected" of having murdered Heywood, Xinhua said. 
 
 A witness, Guo Weiguo, testified that the official "angrily rebuked" Wang, before slapping him in the face. "The conflict was made public after Wang Lijun was slapped," Guo said. 
 
 After Wang's run-in with Bo, he instructed his staff to "rearrange" Heywood's case file. Shortly after, he was demoted and three members working closely with Wang were put under "illegal investigation." "Wang felt he was in danger, giving rise to his idea to defect," Xinhua said. 
 
 On February 6, Wang entered the U.S. Consulate in Chengdu, where he said his life was in danger and asked officials to fill out an application for political asylum. The next day, however, he was persuaded to leave the consulate and was taken into custody by Chinese officials. 
 
 In his final statement to the court, Wang was reported to have apologized for his crimes, saying, "I hope the serious impacts (caused by my acts) both at home and abroad would be eliminated through the trial. Meanwhile, I hope the trial will issue a warning to society and let more people draw lessons from me. 
 
 "For the Party organizations, people and relatives that have cared for me, I want to say here, sincerely, 'I'm very, very sorry, I've let you down,' " Wang added. 
 
 At the close of the trial, Wang's defense team pleaded for leniency in sentencing on the defection charge on the grounds that Wang left the U.S. Consulate of his own volition. They also said he provided key evidence to help authorities secure Gu's conviction for murder and on that basis his crime of bending the law for personal gain "could be lighter." The court accepted these arguments and sentenced him "leniently," Yang said Monday. 
 
 Wang's decision to seek refuge in the U.S. Consulate brought the case into public view and led to Bo's high-profile demise. 
 
 Until the case was exposed, Bo was considered a top contender for the Politburo Standing Committee, the team of nine politicians who effectively rule China. China's Communist Party is expected to meet at its 18th National Congress next month to announce who'll occupy the top positions. 
 
 Bo, 63, was a charismatic, albeit controversial politician, who launched a "smashing black, singing red" campaign in Chongqing that promoted communist ideology and zealously cracked down on organized crime. 
 
 His economic programs, which included millions spent on social welfare, made him a popular leader in Chongqing. But analysts say his populist policies and high-profile personal style were seen as a challenge to the more economically liberal and reform-oriented faction that dominated the current party leadership. 
 
 Bo and Wang were known to have worked closely on Bo's signature crime-fighting program in 2009. In just 10 months, Chongqing police arrested almost 5,000 people and executed more than a dozen. ||||| BEIJING China's ruling Communist Party took a big step towards sealing the fate of fallen politician Bo Xilai on Monday, when a court jailed his former police chief for 15 years over charges that indicated Bo tried to derail a murder inquiry. 
 
 The court in Chengdu in southwest China handed down the sentence against Wang Lijun after finding him guilty on four charges, including seeking to cover up the November 2011 murder of a British businessman, Neil Heywood, by Bo's wife, Gu Kailai. 
 
 The verdict ended the career of one of China's most storied and controversial police officers and moved the party closer to a formal decision on dealing with Bo, whose downfall has shaken a leadership handover due at a party congress as early as next month. 
 
 "Wang Lijun exposed clues of major law-breaking and crimes by others," said the court verdict, according to the Xinhua news agency. It did not say who those other people were. 
 
 "He rendered a major contribution, and according to the law he can receive a lighter sentence," said the court. Wang could have received life imprisonment, or even a death sentence. 
 
 The relatively mild sentence, following official confirmation that Wang shared incriminating clues and that Bo beat him after Wang confronted him over the murder allegations, added weight to predictions that the party will move to jail Bo too, said He Weifang, a law professor at Peking University who has closely followed the case. 
 
 "The legal net around Bo Xilai has been slowly tightening," said He. "He'll certainly face a criminal trial." 
 
 Experts have offered divided views over whether the party will put Bo before a criminal court or spare him and the leadership that disgrace by simply meting out lighter disciplinary punishment within the party. Some still see that latter course as more likely. 
 
 Before Chinese authorities can launch a criminal investigation, the party leadership must first hear the results of an internal investigation and decide whether to hand Bo over. That could happen at a leadership conclave that must take place before the bigger party congress convenes. 
 
 "I'd guess now that even within a week the party could announce that he has been handed over to legal authorities," said Li Weidong, a former magazine editor who has followed the scandal around Bo. 
 
 "If there's not a decision on that (Bo case) soon, then it could be difficult to hold the party congress by mid-to-later October." 
 
 THE SLAP THAT CHANGED HISTORY 
 
 The court said Wang, former police chief of southwestern Chongqing municipality, received the sentence for "bending the law for selfish ends, defection, abuse of power and bribe-taking", according to Xinhua. 
 
 Wang would not appeal against the sentence, said his lawyer Wang Yuncai, who is not a relative. The sentence could be cut after he serves half his sentence, added Wang, the lawyer. 
 
 "He accepted the sentence," she said. "He's doing okay." 
 
 The scandal that felled both men erupted after Gu murdered Heywood in a hilltop hotel villa in Chongqing, the city where Bo was the flamboyant party chief. 
 
 As well as the conviction for sabotaging an investigation into the murder, Wang was found guilty of defecting to a U.S. consulate, taking bribes and conducting illegal surveillance. 
 
 Officials have said the murder arose from a business dispute in Chongqing, which Bo and Wang ran as their fiefdom. 
 
 After first helping Gu evade suspicion of poisoning Heywood, Wang hushed up evidence of the murder, according to the official account of Wang's trial. In late January, Wang confronted Bo with the allegation that Gu was suspected of killing Heywood. But Wang was "angrily rebuked and had his ears boxed". 
 
 "That was a slap around the ears that changed history," said Li Zhuang, a Beijing lawyer who opposed Wang and Bo for mounting a sweeping crackdown on foes in the name of fighting organized crime. "Otherwise, Bo might still be in power and hoping to rise higher." 
 
 Days after the confrontation, Bo stripped Wang of his post as Chongqing police chief. The court verdict said several of Wang's subordinates were "illegally investigated". 
 
 "The reports on Wang Lijun's case are clear that Bo was obstructing justice, obstructing the investigation into the homicide case against his wife," said He, the law professor. 
 
 Wang, fearing for his safety, fled to the U.S. consulate in Chengdu where he hid for more than 24 hours until Chinese officials coaxed him out. 
 
 In August, Gu was sentenced to a suspended death sentence, which effectively means life in prison. 
 
 Wang sealed his fate at a trial a week ago by admitting the charges, Xinhua said. Only official media were allowed inside the courtroom in Chengdu, 300 km (190 miles) from Chongqing. 
 
 In March, Bo was sacked as Chongqing party boss, and in April he was suspended from the party's Politburo, a powerful decision-making council with two dozen active members. 
 
 So far, Bo has been accused only of breaching internal party discipline, and his defenders have accused foes of exploiting the charges against Gu to topple Bo. He had not been given a chance to defend himself publicly since his fall in March. 
 
 (Additional reporting by Sally Huang and Terril Yue Jones; Editing by Mark Bendeich and Nick Macfie)
– The one-time Chinese police chief who blew the whistle on the Bo Xilai murder scandal has been sentenced to 15 years in prison. Wang Lijun, who attempted earlier this year to defect to the US, was sentenced today by the Chengdu City Intermediate People's Court for bending the law for selfish ends, defection, abuse of power, and taking some $480,000 in bribes, reports CNN. The sentence was considered lenient, given that he could have been sentenced to death for the bribes alone, reports the New York Times. Wang, 52, was the right-hand man of now disgraced former Chongqing Party chief Bo Xilai, whose wife, Gu Kailai, was handed a suspended death sentence last month for the murder of family associate and British businessman Neil Heywood. Bo hasn't been seen in public for several months. Wang's trial indicated the next court target will likely be Bo, reports Reuters. The murder scandal, the biggest to hit Chinese politics in years, was blown open by Wang, who told US diplomats when he attempted to defect at the Chengdu consulate that Gu had poisoned Heywood late last year. The US refused to grant Wang asylum and turned him over to Beijing authorities. Bo was bounced from the Chongqing top post and from the Politburo a short time later.