Chinese politician’s wife charged with murder of UK businessman

According to the official Xinhua News Agency, the indictment alleges that Bo’s wife, Gu Kailai, had a falling out with Briton Neil Heywood and worried that it would threaten her and their son’s safety.

Its report says Gu and the aide Zhang Xiaojun are alleged to have poisoned Heywood together.

Heywood died in November.

Bo’s ousting this spring and the investigation into his family are the messiest political scandal the normally secretive Chinese leadership has faced in decades.

Heywood’s death was attributed initially to a heart attack or excessive drinking.

They were charged in the eastern city of Hefei, Xinhua said. It did not say when exactly the indictment was issued or when the crime occurred and why the case is being prosecuted in Hefei and not in Chongqing, the metropolis Bo ran as Communist party secretary and where the couple lived.

Prosecutors have interrogated Bo and Zhang and have “heard the opinions” of their defence lawyers, Xinhua said.

The brief 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 and that Bo was being suspended from the powerful Politburo for unspecified discipline violations.

Yesterday’s Xinhua report did not mention Bo’s case or a separate party investigation.

The scandal exposed the bare-knuckled infighting that the secretive leadership prefers to hide and affirmed an already sceptical public’s dim view about corrupt dealings in the party.