China court to give verdict in Gu murder case

A Chinese court will pronounce judgment Monday on Gu Kailai, wife of former top politician Bo Xilai, over the murder of a British businessman in a case that set off China's biggest scandal in years. The verdict comes less than two weeks after Gu's trial, during which she confessed to murdering Neil Heywood, a 41-year-old British man with whom the family had business dealings, after a row over money. Experts say a guilty verdict is almost certain but Gu is likely to be spared execution and will instead serve a long prison sentence, though murder typically carries the death penalty in China. The case brought down Gu's husband Bo, who had been tipped to become one of the ruling Communist party's top officials in a ten-yearly power handover at the party Congress later this year. Political analysts say the fall-out from the scandal revealed deep rifts at the heart of the party, and that its leaders are eager to draw a line under the controversy. An account of the trial, issued through the official Xinhua news agency a day after the seven-hour hearing in Hefei, said Gu -- herself a lawyer -- confessed and blamed her actions on a mental breakdown. Xinhua said Gu invited Heywood to Chongqing for a meeting last November, plied him with wine until he became drunk and then poured cyanide mixed with water into his mouth. She acted after Heywood allegedly threatened the couple's son, Bo Guagua, the report added, a factor that could possibly mitigate her sentence. "This case has been like a huge stone weighing on me for more than half a year. What a nightmare," she was quoted as saying. But observers say the report leaves out key information, including whether Gu was involved in corruption as the wife of a top official and the possible implication of Bo himself in the case. "The story tries to make it look like simply a private matter engineered by Gu without the knowledge, participation or cover up of her husband," Jerome Cohen, a specialist in Chinese law at New York University, told AFP. "It (the case) reinforces the well-known notion that the party controls everything. The judiciary is told what to do by the party in cases of importance, like this one," he added. Hu Shuli, editor of the influential Caixin business magazine, questioned the Xinhua account, and said Gu expected to get away with the crime given her position of privilege within China's hierarchy. "The story spun about a mother sacrificing herself for her own can hardly deceive anyone," she wrote in an essay posted on the magazine's website. "The large amounts of money involved bring up the question of corruption. Who are the others involved? Is Bo among them?" Bo was a charismatic but divisive official known during his tenure as party chief of the southwestern city of Chongqing for a tough anti-corruption drive and a Maoist-style "red revival" that alienated moderates. He also flouted convention by openly lobbying for a spot in the party's top decision-making body, the Politburo Standing Committee.