The Heywood Murder: Daily Mail UK

Chinese lover who murdered British businessman Neil Heywood avoids execution

• Gu Kailai admitted lacing British businessman's drink with cyanide
• Wife of high ranking Chinese politician will probably spend 14 years in prison
• Poisoning happened after her lover 'threatened her playboy son'
• Media denied access to court to hear trial of 'China's Jackie Kennedy'

By Anna Edwards
PUBLISHED: 04:34 GMT, 20 August 2012 | UPDATED: 20:16 GMT, 20 August 2012

• Comments (21)

The wife of a fallen Chinese politician who confessed to killing her lover, British businessman Neil Heywood, has today avoided execution.
A Chinese court sentenced Gu Kailai, wife of ousted politician Bo Xilai, to death with a two-year reprieve for murdering a British businessman, two witnesses to the closed-door hearing said.
The sentence means that Gu is likely to face life imprisonment - which would in effect mean her serving about 14 years in jail - provided she does not commit offences in the next two years.
Scroll down to watch the sentencing

In the dock: Gu Kailai, the wife of disgraced Chinese politician Bo Xilai, was sentenced today over the killing of Neil Heywood

He Zhengsheng, a lawyer for Mr Heywood, said Gu Kailai was given the suspended death sentence by the court in Hefei.
Afterwards, a court spokesman said Gu’ s sentence had been reduced because the judges believed Mr Heywood had ‘used threatening words’.
The court also found Gu’s actions reflected a ‘psychological impairment’ but did not elaborate.
Zhang Xiaojun, an aide to the Bo household, was jailed for nine years for acting as an accomplice to the poisoning of Heywood.
State broadcaster CCTV showed a calm-looking Gu wearing a black suit, hands folded in front of her, peering straight ahead in the packed courtroom as she accepted the verdict. No foreign reporters were allowed in.

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Gu said: 'I think the verdict is just. It fully reflects the court's special respect toward the law, reality and life.'
During the trial last week, Gu admitted to poisoning the businessman in November, and alleged that a business dispute between them led him to threaten her son, Bo Guagua, according to state media.
She confessed to luring her former lover to a hotel room where she got him drunk and then laced his drink with cyanide.
The alleged motive behind 41-year-old Mr Heywood’s grisly death was revealed at the murder trial of Mrs Gu, dubbed the Jackie Kennedy of China.

Facing trial: Gu Kailai, 52, and aide Zhang Xiaojun, 33, are escorted into the Hefei City People's Court

No contest: During the trial Gu and Zhang did not raise any objections that on November 13, 2011, they went to Heywood's hotel room and, after getting him drunk, administered a fatal poison

The court room in Hefei, Anhui province was packed with people listening to hear the fate of the murderer. She avoided the death penalty

Her lawyer even argued that affable Mr Heywood, a father of two young children, ‘should bear some responsibility’ for his own murder.

Mrs Gu appeared in court two weeks ago alongside her co-accused – family bodyguard Zhang Xiajun, 33, who is alleged to have prepared the poison – where they both entered pleas but they did not contest the murder charge against them.
The court heard the Jaguar-driving Englishman had fallen into an ‘economic dispute’ with Mrs Gu’s party-loving son Bo Guagua, 24, whom Mr Heywood had once mentored to secure a place at his alma mater, Harrow School.

A police officer stands guard outside Hefei Intermediate People's Court today. TV cameras were set up outside awaiting the sentencing of Gu Kailai

Keeping watch: In heightened security conditions, to police officers stand behind tape in bushes close to the court ready to pounce at the first sign of trouble

Mr Bo, known for a love of champagne and shisha parties while studying at Oxford University, was allegedly told by Mr Heywood: ‘If you do not give me £13million, you will be destroyed,’ the judges heard, according to a reliable source who was in the courtroom.

Under threat: An undated photo of businessman Neil Heywood who was murdered in November last year

During the trial, the court heard how Mr Heywood and his murderer had an affair which ended in assassins attempting to kill him.
Bodyguard Michael Wright, who protected Neil Haywood during his affair with Gu, told the court how he fought off three Chinese assassins in an attempt on the old Harrovian’s life.
Michael Wright and his team were protecting the couple during the time they shared a flat in Bournemouth and revealed that the exposure of the affair led to a serious threat to Neil Heywood's life when three men tried to break into their home.
His interview comes the days after Gu Kailai appeared in court in China accused of killing Neil Heywood after he made a threatening demand for £13million from her playboy son.
Mr Wright said the team were surprised by three Chinese henchmen under orders to kill Mr Heywood after a spy, posing as a cook, has exposed the affair in 2001.
He said the three men attempted to break into the flat using martial arts but were fought off and fled.
Mr Wright said that despite the attempt on his life Mr Haywood and Mrs Gu became increasingly relaxed about their affair and would enjoy romantic dates at local restaurants.
'We respect the court's decision,' He Zhengsheng, a lawyer for the Heywood family, told reporters.
He and another witness to the hearing, which was barred to all but a few journalists from official Chinese media, revealed the verdict outside the courtroom.
They both also said Zhang Xiaojun, an aide to the Bo household, was sentenced to nine years in prison for acting as an accomplice to the poisoning of Heywood.

Political scandal: Gu Zailai, left, with her husband - former Chongqing Municipality Communist Party Secretary Bo Xilai. The murder case is one of China's biggest political scandals

Implicated: The official allegation against Gu suggests Heywood might have been making threats against her son Bo Guagua, 24

Gu's sentencing could be a prelude to formal punishment of Bo Xilai, a brashly ambitious politician under investigation for alleged violations of party discipline - an accusation that covers corruption, abuse of power and other misdeeds.
After the party leadership decides on those allegations, Bo Xilai could also face criminal charges related to the murder case.
Bo's hopes for securing a spot in China's next top leadership unravelled after his former police chief, Wang Lijun, fled to a U.S. consulate in early February for about 24 hours and exposed the murder allegations.
Bo, the son of a revolutionary, ran the southwestern city of Chongqing where Heywood was killed. Bo was seen as competing for a place in the Politburo Standing Committee, the body at the pinnacle of power in China, at a once-in-a-decade leadership transition later this year.
His downfall has stirred more division than that of any other leader for over two decades. To leftist supporters, Bo was a charismatic rallying figure for efforts to reimpose party control over dizzying, unequal market-led growth.
But he made powerful enemies among those who saw him as an opportunist who wanted to impose his policies on the country.
Bo was sacked as Chongqing boss in March and Gu was publicly accused of the murder in April, when Bo was suspended from the Politburo, a 25-member elite council that ranks below the Standing Committee. He has yet to be expelled from that council.
Four Chinese policemen have also admitted to charges that they sought to protect Gu from investigation - a development that could also prove dangerous for Bo.
Police sources in Chongqing have said Bo tried to shut down the investigation into his wife after being told she was a suspect. Bo has not been seen in public since March, when he gave a combative defence of his policies and family at a news conference during China's annual parliament session.
The murder trial comes at a sensitive time in China with a handover soon of power to younger leaders.

WAS IT REALLY GU KAILAI IN THE DOCK OR HER 'BODY DOUBLE'?

Looking far plumper in the dock than before she was arrested, there was speculation yesterday that the world was watching Gu Kailai’s ‘body double’ rather than the woman herself.
Micro-bloggers believe the government used a stand-in for Gu at the trial because her appearance has changed so radically since she has been in custody.
She has put on weight, when most prisoners in Chinese jails shed pounds.
Some are blaming her puffy appearance on the medication used to treat her ‘mental state’, though few are convinced.

Controversy: Looking far plumper in the dock, left, than before she was arrested, right, there was speculation yesterday that the world was watching Gu Kailai’s ‘body double’ rather than the woman herself

The Financial Times quoted two security experts ‘familiar with facial recognition software’, who said the person shown in state television footage of the courtroom was not Gu.
If true, the real Gu could have done a deal with Communist Party chiefs and be spending her time under house arrest in far comfier surroundings than a jail.
Though it may seem far-fetched, the use of a body double by the rich and powerful in China is well documented by the media.
In May 2009, wealthy 20-year-old Hu Bin killed a pedestrian when drag-racing through the city streets of Hangzhou. In court, Hu is believed to have hired a body double to serve his three-year sentence.
The same year, a hospital president who caused a deadly traffic accident hired an employee's father to ‘confess’ and serve as his stand-in.
In another case, after hitting and killing a motorcyclist, a man driving without a licence hired a substitute for £5,000.
Meanwhile, the owner of a demolition company that illegally demolished a home earlier this year hired a destitute man and promised him £20 for each day his ‘body double’ spent in jail.
The practice is so common that there is even a term for it - ding zui. Ding means ‘substitute’ and zui means ‘crime’, in other words, ‘substitute criminal’.

VIDEO: Gu Kailai's reaction to the suspended death sentence aired on Chinese state TV  

VIDEO: Gu Kailai escapes the death penalty for murdering Neil Heywood


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