The son of ousted Chinese politician Bo Xilai has broken a months-long silence, saying his father's imminent trial will carry no "moral weight" if it depends on deals struck with his parents to guarantee his well-being.
Bo Guagua, 25, said in a statement to the New York Times on Tuesday that he'd been denied contact with his father and mother - who was convicted of murder last year - for 18 months.
"I can only surmise the conditions of their clandestine detention and the adversity they each endure in solitude," he said in the statement, published on the newspaper's website.
Bo Xilai - party chief of the southwestern megacity of Chongqing before he was brought down by accusations his wife murdered a British businessman - is due to stand trial on Thursday for bribery, corruption and abuse of power.
Reports speculate that Bo Guagua's mother Gu Kailai will testify at her husband's trial on the condition her son's future welfare will be guaranteed, and his father has also been under pressure to co-operate.
He said in the statement: "If my well-being has been bartered for my father's acquiescence or my mother's further co-operation, then the verdict will clearly carry no moral weight."
He called for his father to be "granted the opportunity to answer his critics and defend himself without constraints of any kind" during his trial which has been scheduled in the eastern province of Shandong.
The remarks are Bo Guagua's first public statement since saying in September allegations against his father were "hard to believe".
Bo Guagua is thought to live in the US and is soon to begin legal studies at Columbia University in New York.
Analysts say the proceedings in Bo's trial have been decided in advance as a result of political bargaining by powerful factions within China's ruling Communist party.
A guilty verdict, with a hefty prison sentence to follow, are almost certain.
