Bo’s wife, aide charged with murder

BEIJING: Ousted Chinese Communist leader Bo Xilai’s wife, Gu Kailai, has been charged along with a family aide with British national Neil Heywood’s murder. But the prosecutors left a possible escape route for her as the court hearing the case was told that she had committed the crime to protect her son.
“Worrying about Neil Heywood’s threat to her son’s personal security, Gu Kailai along with Zhang Xiaojun, the other defendant, poisoned Neil Heywood to death,” the state-run Xinhua reported.
It said that Heywood was murdered over a financial dispute and said the “evidence is irrefutable and substantial” .
It is a far cry from stories of corruption and dubious business deals that were put out against Gu in the media over the past several weeks.
The report is the first official news that the case against Gu is proceeding since the announcement three months ago that she and Zhang were being investigated .
Heywood was found dead in a hotel room in Chongqing city when Bo was the governor there in November 2011.
Municipal prosecuting body at the Hefei Municipal Intermediate People’s court prosecutors charged the two. Gu’s alleged role in the murder was probed after Bo was removed from his position as Chongqing governor. The murder shocked the ruling Communist Party ahead of the scheduled leadership change in the party as he was due to be made a member of its powerful nine-member politburo standing committee.
The scandal exposed the bare-knuckled infighting that the secretive leadership prefers to hide and affirmed an already skeptical public’s dim view about corrupt dealings in the party.
Before his ouster, Bo was one of China’s most powerful and charismatic politicians. On his rise, he led high-profile campaigns to bust organized crime and to promote communist culture. In doing so, however , his administration ran roughshod over civil liberties that angered some leaders and alienated others with his publicity seeking.
The prosecuting body informed the defendants about their litigation rights during the investigation.