A Chinese court has found disgraced former top politician Bo Xilai guilty of bribery, embezzlement and abuse of power.
Bo was removed from office last year amid a scandal which saw his wife convicted for the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood.
The BBC reports the former party chief of Chongqing denied all the charges against him in a fiery defence at his trial in August.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment, but has the right to appeal.
The verdict was handed down by the Intermediate People's Court in Jinan, Shandong province.
Passing sentence the judge told Bo that he had damaged China's national interests and the interests of its people, wrongfully using his position in power to receive bribes totalling 20 million Chinese Yuan.
He said that his confession to the crimes was not acquired through illegal means such as torture and interrogation and therefore it still stood.
During Bo's trial last month the court took the unprecedented step of releasing details about proceedings on its Weibo microblog.
Prosecutors had said that Bo accepted the bribes and embezzled public funds from Dalian, where he used to be mayor.
He was also accused of abusing his office by using his position to cover up for his wife Gu Kailai, convicted last year of murdering Neil Heywood in 2011.
In lengthy comments in court, he said he did not illegally obtain millions of dollars or cover up Mr Heywood's killing.
He also dismissed the testimony of two key witnesses, describing his wife's statement as "ridiculous" and his former police chief Wang Lijun's testimony as "full of lies and fraud".
