The wife of disgraced Chinese politician Bo Xilai lured a British businessman to a hotel in the southwestern mega-city of Chongqing, where she got him drunk and poisoned him, testimony revealed Thursday in one of China's highest-profile murder trials.
The secretive trial of Gu Kailai and a household aide, who are accused of murdering Bo family associate Neil Heywood, ended in less than a day at the Intermediate People's Court in the eastern Chinese city of Hefei. The defendants did not contest the murder charges; a guilty verdict is all but assured and could carry a death sentence.
The tightly orchestrated court proceeding marks a step toward resolving the messiest scandal the Communist leadership has faced in two decades.
Bo was one of China's most powerful and charismatic politicians until he was ousted in the spring as the scandal surrounding Heywood's death unfolded. Observers say the party's main objective is to keep the focus tightly on the murder case and not on larger allegations of corruption that could further taint the regime.
International media were barred from the courtroom, so details of the case against Gu were provided afterward by Tang Yigan, the court's deputy director.
He said prosecutors told the court that Gu sent her aide, Zhang Xiaojun, to meet and accompany Heywood from Beijing to Chongqing, where Bo was the Communist Party boss.
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Gu and Heywood were business associates but had had a dispute over economic interests, according to Tang, whose account matched details from the indictment reported in official media several weeks ago. Gu thought Heywood was a threat to her son, 24-year-old Bo Guagua, and decided to have him killed, said Tang, who did not specify what sort of threat Heywood posed.
On the night of Nov. 13, Gu went to Heywood's hotel and drank alcohol and tea with him.
"When Heywood was drunk and vomited and wanted to drink water, she then took pre-prepared poison that she had asked Zhang Xiaojun to carry, and poured it into Heywood's mouth, killing him," Tang said.
Heywood's friends and family have said he was never a heavy drinker, and they rejected investigators' initial conclusion that he drank himself to death. His body was cremated and no autopsy was performed.
Tang said the prosecutors believed the facts of the crime were clear and the evidence sufficient, and that "Gu Kailai is the main culprit and Zhang is the accomplice."
Before Thursday, the 53-year-old Gu had not been seen in months and has never publicly offered her side of the story.
Video of the trial shown by state broadcaster CCTV showed a calm-looking Gu being led into court wearing a white button-down shirt and dark suit with a sheaf of papers in one hand. She was not handcuffed. Zhang wore a white polo shirt and also was not handcuffed.
Chinese officials agreed to let two British diplomats attend court, but the British Embassy in Beijing said it would offer no statement on the proceedings.
The quick trial contrasts with often-lengthy high-profile murder cases around the world. But it's common in China, where even the verdict can be delivered the same day in death penalty cases.
"It's very unusual for criminal trials (in China) to extend beyond a day," said Joshua Rosenzweig, a human rights researcher based in Hong Kong who said trials are short in part because witness testimony is usually written, instead of delivered in person.
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