MOSCOW, July 25 (RIA Novosti) - Bo Xilai, once a rising star of Chinese politics, was charged on Thursday with bribery, embezzlement and abuse of power, Xinhua news agency reported.

According to the agency, the indictment paper was passed on to the Jinan City Intermediate People's Court on Thursday.

Bo was expelled from the Communist Party of China and stripped of his parliamentary status in September last year on accusations of abuse of office, graft and “mistaken staff decisions.”

The expulsion and the annulment of his diplomatic immunity paved the way to open a criminal investigation against him.

Bo, a Politburo member from 2007 to 2012, made a name for himself through a combination of left-wing populism and personal charisma, a rarity on the Chinese political scene.

He was expected to become one of the nine members of the Politburo Standing Committee, the country’s supreme governing body which is set to undergo a massive rotation in November as seven members are reaching retirement age.

However, Bo’s career was unraveled by the case against his wife Gu Kailai, who was convicted in August last year of poisoning a British businessman and received a suspended death penalty.