The first extended public comments on the case from Bo’s wife, Gu Kailai, appeared in a Xinhua news agency account which said she and a household aide, Zhang Xiaojun, had “confessed to intentional homicide” in poisoning Heywood in November.
“I will accept and calmly face any sentence and I also expect a fair and just court decision,” Gu told her trial on Thursday, according to the Xinhua account, which could not be independently verified.
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But the state media account of Gu’s testimony also repeated her argument that she turned on Heywood, a long-time family friend who had helped her son Bo Guagua with his schooling in England, only after she decided he was a threat to her son.
“During those days last November, I suffered a mental breakdown after learning that my son was in jeopardy,” Gu said.
The latest official account from the scandal that has beset China’s ruling Communist Party came on the same day that four Chinese policemen admitted to attempting to shield Gu from suspicion of the murder of Heywood, an official said, in another damaging development for the ex-Politburo member.
The official’s statement, given after an 11-hour hearing barred to non-official media, formally establishes for the first time that there was an attempted cover-up of the Heywood’s murder and comes just a day after Gu, chose not to contest a charge of poisoning him.
In another twist to the politically explosive case, Gu’s legal team claimed that a “third party or parties” may have been responsible for the 41-year-old’s death, the Telegraph reported. It quoted a source saying Gu’s “attempts” to poison Heywood by spiking his drink could not have caused his death since a government test of Heywood’s blood found it contained a “non-lethal dose.”
The defence suggested that the third party may have killed Heywood after Gu and her “accomplice,” Zhang Xiaojun had left the hotel where his body was later found by police, the paper reported. That body had changed position between the time Gu and an “accomplice” left the hotel and the time police discovered the body, they claimed.
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Bo was sacked as Chongqing boss in March and his wife was publicly accused of the murder in April, when Bo was dumped from the Politburo and detained on an accusation he had violated party discipline — code for corruption, abuse of power and other misdeeds.
Until then, Heywood’s death had been attributed to a possible heart attack brought on by too much alcohol.
Bo’s downfall has stirred more public division than that of any other party leader for more than 30 years. To leftist supporters, Bo became a charismatic rallying figure for efforts to reimpose party control over dizzying, unequal market growth.
But he had made some powerful enemies among those who saw him as a dangerous opportunist who yearned to impose his harsh policies on the entire country.
The Xinhua account also gave the first official explanation of the business dispute that allegedly drove a wedge between Gu and Heywood and led to his murder.
Gu introduced Heywood “to serve as a proxy to a company and participate in the planning of a land project, which never got started”, the report said.
“Heywood later got into a dispute with Bogu Kailai and her son over payment and other issues, and he threatened her son’s personal safety,” it said. Bogu is Gu’s formal surname.
The Xinhua account did not say how much the proposed project was worth, but sources have said the court heard that Heywood believed he deserved about 10 percent of 130 million pounds ($204 million).
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