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The courtroom inside the Intermediate People’s Court in Hefei, east China’s Anhui Province, was packed with more than 140 people on August 9, as a closely watched murder trial commenced.
The two defendants of the intentional homicide trial were Bogu Kailai and Zhang Xiaojun. The two were accused of murdering British businessman Neil Heywood at a hotel in Chongqing last year.
Bogu Kailai, 53, was a practicing lawyer in Beijing. She is the wife of Bo Xilai, former Party chief of southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality and a former member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China(CPC).
In April, the CPC Central Committee suspended Bo from his posts at the committee and its Political Bureau because “Bo is suspected of being involved in serious violations of Party discipline.”
Bo is under investigation by the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.
Zhang, 22, was an employee of the General Office of the CPC Chongqing Municipal Committee.
Diplomats from the British embassy and consulates in China, media representatives, deputies to China’s legislature and members of China’s political advisory body were all present at the trial.
The case
The proceedings began at 8:30 a.m.
According to the indictment, Bogu Kailai and her son, surnamed Bo, had conflicts with Heywood over economic interests. Concerned about Heywood’s threat to her son’s per- sonal safety, Bogu Kailai poisoned him with Zhang’s assistance.
Bogu Kailai said in her testimony that “it was in about 2005 when my son was studying in Britain that Neil Heywood wrote us a letter introducing himself, showing his intent to get to know us.”
She then testified that after she and her son became acquainted with Heywood, she brought him on to serve as a proxy to a company and participate in the planning of a land project, which never got started. Heywood later got into a dispute with the two over payment and other issues, and he threatened her son’s personal safety.
In court, prosecutors presented e-mails exchanged between Heywood and Bogu Kailai, showing how the dispute between the two escalated.
According to the evidence presented by prosecutors, after Bogu Kailai learned of the escalation of their dispute, she believed Heywood had become a threat to her son and decided to kill him.
“To me, it was more than a threat; it was real action that was taking place. I had to fight to my death to stop the madness of Neil Heywood,” said Bogu Kailai in testimony prosecutors presented in court.
According to Zhang’s testimony, on November 12, 2011, Bogu Kailai instructed him to escort Heywood from Beijing to Chongqing the following day. Heywood checked in to Room No.1605 of the 16th building of the Lucky Holiday Hotel in Nan’an District of Chongqing.
At around 9 p.m. on November 13, Bogu Kailai and Zhang visited Heywood’s hotel, bringing along two bottles—a glass bottle of poison that contained a cyanide compound, which Bogu Kailai obtained illegally, and another medicine bottle of capsulated drugs, as well as wine and tea. After entering Heywood’s hotel room, Bogu Kailai drank wine and tea with him while Zhang waited outside. Later, Heywood became drunk and Bogu Kailai put the bottle of cyanide compound she had prepared into Heywood’s mouth. Then she scattered the capsulated drugs on the hotel floor to make it seem as though Heywood had overdosed on the pills.
During the trial, the Ministry of Public Security’s reports and position papers on the examination of material evidence, as offered by prosecutors, showed that blood extracted from Heywood’s heart and samples of his vomit collected at the crime scene contained cyanide ions, showing Heywood’s death was caused by cyanide poisoning. The conclusion was based on renewed examination and identification of trace evidence taken at the crime scene as well as the blood sample, which was collected and preserved by the Public Security Bureau of Chongqing after his death.
The People’s Procuratorate of Hefei accused the two defendants of murder by poisoning. With clear facts and substantial evidence, their behavior violated Article 232 of the Criminal Law of the People’s Republic of China; therefore, the two defendants should be held criminally responsible for intentional homicide. The case is a joint offense, with Bogu Kailai as the principal offender and Zhang Xiaojun as the accessory.
Investigation
After Wang Lijun, former Vice Mayor of Chongqing and chief of the Public Security Bureau of Chongqing, entered the U.S. Consulate General in Chengdu on February 6, without authorization, the Ministry of Public Security looked into his report that Bogu Kailai was suspected of murdering Heywood.
The ministry set up a team to reinvestigate the case in accordance with the law, and found that Heywood had been the victim of homicide. Bogu Kailai and Zhang were then considered prime suspects.
On suspicion of intentional homicide, the two were put under residential surveillance on March 15.
Police, prosecutorial and judicial authorities have taken the facts as the basis and the law as the criterion, and handled the case strictly in accordance with the law throughout the investigation, approval of the arrest, prosecution and the court hearing.
During the investigation, the police formulated a meticulous investigation plan, conducted 394 interrogations of witnesses and people involved in the case and put together 212 evidence documents totaling 1,468 pages in 16 volumes. Investigators visited Chongqing, Beijing and other places repeatedly during the course of the investigation, questioning those involved in the case and people with knowledge about what had happened.
Investigators underwent a meticulous process of collecting, examining, storing and transferring important material evidence, such as the blood extracted from Heywood’s heart, the traces of poison and the vomit samples. A substantial amount of evidence had been further obtained and confirmed after three months of scrupulous investigation efforts, including 200 suggested items for further investigation.
After Bogu Kailai was held by investigators for questioning, she first refused to call on a lawyer. In a bid to protect the legitimate rights of a criminal suspect, judicial staff informed her of her right to a lawyer several times.
Bogu Kailai eventually decided on her own to entrust two lawyers to represent her, and Zhang chose to entrust one lawyer to represent him.
To ensure an impartial handling of the case, the Ministry of Public Security, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate and the Supreme People’s Court designated the Public Security Bureau, the People’s Procuratorate and the Intermediate People’s Court of Hefei to carry out the investigation, prosecution and trial of the case, respectively.
On July 6, the procuratorate approved the arrest of Bogu Kailai and Zhang for suspicion of intentional homicide.
On July 10, the police transferred the case to the procuratorate for the same charge after concluding the investigation.
On July 26, the procuratorate issued an indictment to the Intermediate People’s Court of Hefei.
The trial on August 9 lasted for about seven hours.
When the trial was about to close at 3:10 p.m., Bogu Kailai said in her final statement that she accepted all the facts written in the indictment.
“The case has dealt severe blows to the Party and the country, for which I ought to shoulder the responsibility. I am grateful to the humanitarian care shown to me by those who handled the case. I solemnly tell the court that in order to maintain the dignity of the law, I will calmly accept any sentence and will expect a fair and just court decision,” she said.
Zhang said in his final statement that he confessed his guilt, and wished to extend his apologies to the relatives of the victim. “I hope the court can give me a chance to take a new lease on life. I know what I did was wrong.”
The court announced that the judgment will be delivered on a day that has yet to be announced.
Police corruption
On August 10, four former police officers in Chongqing also stood trial in Hefei on charges of covering up Bogu Kailai’s illegal conduct during the investigation into Heywood’s death.
The officers are Guo Weiguo, former deputy chief of Chongqing’s Public Security Bureau, Li Yang, former chief of the bureau’s criminal section, Wang Pengfei, former chief of the bureau’s technical detection team and also former chief of the Public Security SubBureau of Yubei District, and Wang Zhi, former executive deputy chief of the Public Security Sub-Bureau of Shapingba District.
According to the evidence submitted by the prosecutors at the trial of Bogu Kailai, after Heywood was found dead on the morning of November 15, 2011, Guo Weiguo, who has close ties with Bogu Kailai’s family, was designated to handle the case by Wang Lijun.
Through interviews and on-the-scene investigations, Guo and other defendants found that Bogu Kailai was highly suspected of committing the crime. They covered up Bogu Kailai’s presence at the scene by fabricating interview records, hiding material evidence and other measures.
Guo and the other three decided through consultations to list the official cause of Heywood’s death as sudden death after drinking alcohol, and did not put it on file as a criminal case. They also persuaded Heywood’s family members to accept their conclusion of the cause of death and cremated the body in Chongqing without performing an autopsy.
The court said that the judgment would be given at a later date.
The two defendants of the intentional homicide trial were Bogu Kailai and Zhang Xiaojun. The two were accused of murdering British businessman Neil Heywood at a hotel in Chongqing last year.
Bogu Kailai, 53, was a practicing lawyer in Beijing. She is the wife of Bo Xilai, former Party chief of southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality and a former member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China(CPC).
In April, the CPC Central Committee suspended Bo from his posts at the committee and its Political Bureau because “Bo is suspected of being involved in serious violations of Party discipline.”
Bo is under investigation by the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.
Zhang, 22, was an employee of the General Office of the CPC Chongqing Municipal Committee.
Diplomats from the British embassy and consulates in China, media representatives, deputies to China’s legislature and members of China’s political advisory body were all present at the trial.
The case
The proceedings began at 8:30 a.m.
According to the indictment, Bogu Kailai and her son, surnamed Bo, had conflicts with Heywood over economic interests. Concerned about Heywood’s threat to her son’s per- sonal safety, Bogu Kailai poisoned him with Zhang’s assistance.
Bogu Kailai said in her testimony that “it was in about 2005 when my son was studying in Britain that Neil Heywood wrote us a letter introducing himself, showing his intent to get to know us.”
She then testified that after she and her son became acquainted with Heywood, she brought him on to serve as a proxy to a company and participate in the planning of a land project, which never got started. Heywood later got into a dispute with the two over payment and other issues, and he threatened her son’s personal safety.
In court, prosecutors presented e-mails exchanged between Heywood and Bogu Kailai, showing how the dispute between the two escalated.
According to the evidence presented by prosecutors, after Bogu Kailai learned of the escalation of their dispute, she believed Heywood had become a threat to her son and decided to kill him.
“To me, it was more than a threat; it was real action that was taking place. I had to fight to my death to stop the madness of Neil Heywood,” said Bogu Kailai in testimony prosecutors presented in court.
According to Zhang’s testimony, on November 12, 2011, Bogu Kailai instructed him to escort Heywood from Beijing to Chongqing the following day. Heywood checked in to Room No.1605 of the 16th building of the Lucky Holiday Hotel in Nan’an District of Chongqing.
At around 9 p.m. on November 13, Bogu Kailai and Zhang visited Heywood’s hotel, bringing along two bottles—a glass bottle of poison that contained a cyanide compound, which Bogu Kailai obtained illegally, and another medicine bottle of capsulated drugs, as well as wine and tea. After entering Heywood’s hotel room, Bogu Kailai drank wine and tea with him while Zhang waited outside. Later, Heywood became drunk and Bogu Kailai put the bottle of cyanide compound she had prepared into Heywood’s mouth. Then she scattered the capsulated drugs on the hotel floor to make it seem as though Heywood had overdosed on the pills.
During the trial, the Ministry of Public Security’s reports and position papers on the examination of material evidence, as offered by prosecutors, showed that blood extracted from Heywood’s heart and samples of his vomit collected at the crime scene contained cyanide ions, showing Heywood’s death was caused by cyanide poisoning. The conclusion was based on renewed examination and identification of trace evidence taken at the crime scene as well as the blood sample, which was collected and preserved by the Public Security Bureau of Chongqing after his death.
The People’s Procuratorate of Hefei accused the two defendants of murder by poisoning. With clear facts and substantial evidence, their behavior violated Article 232 of the Criminal Law of the People’s Republic of China; therefore, the two defendants should be held criminally responsible for intentional homicide. The case is a joint offense, with Bogu Kailai as the principal offender and Zhang Xiaojun as the accessory.
Investigation
After Wang Lijun, former Vice Mayor of Chongqing and chief of the Public Security Bureau of Chongqing, entered the U.S. Consulate General in Chengdu on February 6, without authorization, the Ministry of Public Security looked into his report that Bogu Kailai was suspected of murdering Heywood.
The ministry set up a team to reinvestigate the case in accordance with the law, and found that Heywood had been the victim of homicide. Bogu Kailai and Zhang were then considered prime suspects.
On suspicion of intentional homicide, the two were put under residential surveillance on March 15.
Police, prosecutorial and judicial authorities have taken the facts as the basis and the law as the criterion, and handled the case strictly in accordance with the law throughout the investigation, approval of the arrest, prosecution and the court hearing.
During the investigation, the police formulated a meticulous investigation plan, conducted 394 interrogations of witnesses and people involved in the case and put together 212 evidence documents totaling 1,468 pages in 16 volumes. Investigators visited Chongqing, Beijing and other places repeatedly during the course of the investigation, questioning those involved in the case and people with knowledge about what had happened.
Investigators underwent a meticulous process of collecting, examining, storing and transferring important material evidence, such as the blood extracted from Heywood’s heart, the traces of poison and the vomit samples. A substantial amount of evidence had been further obtained and confirmed after three months of scrupulous investigation efforts, including 200 suggested items for further investigation.
After Bogu Kailai was held by investigators for questioning, she first refused to call on a lawyer. In a bid to protect the legitimate rights of a criminal suspect, judicial staff informed her of her right to a lawyer several times.
Bogu Kailai eventually decided on her own to entrust two lawyers to represent her, and Zhang chose to entrust one lawyer to represent him.
To ensure an impartial handling of the case, the Ministry of Public Security, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate and the Supreme People’s Court designated the Public Security Bureau, the People’s Procuratorate and the Intermediate People’s Court of Hefei to carry out the investigation, prosecution and trial of the case, respectively.
On July 6, the procuratorate approved the arrest of Bogu Kailai and Zhang for suspicion of intentional homicide.
On July 10, the police transferred the case to the procuratorate for the same charge after concluding the investigation.
On July 26, the procuratorate issued an indictment to the Intermediate People’s Court of Hefei.
The trial on August 9 lasted for about seven hours.
When the trial was about to close at 3:10 p.m., Bogu Kailai said in her final statement that she accepted all the facts written in the indictment.
“The case has dealt severe blows to the Party and the country, for which I ought to shoulder the responsibility. I am grateful to the humanitarian care shown to me by those who handled the case. I solemnly tell the court that in order to maintain the dignity of the law, I will calmly accept any sentence and will expect a fair and just court decision,” she said.
Zhang said in his final statement that he confessed his guilt, and wished to extend his apologies to the relatives of the victim. “I hope the court can give me a chance to take a new lease on life. I know what I did was wrong.”
The court announced that the judgment will be delivered on a day that has yet to be announced.
Police corruption
On August 10, four former police officers in Chongqing also stood trial in Hefei on charges of covering up Bogu Kailai’s illegal conduct during the investigation into Heywood’s death.
The officers are Guo Weiguo, former deputy chief of Chongqing’s Public Security Bureau, Li Yang, former chief of the bureau’s criminal section, Wang Pengfei, former chief of the bureau’s technical detection team and also former chief of the Public Security SubBureau of Yubei District, and Wang Zhi, former executive deputy chief of the Public Security Sub-Bureau of Shapingba District.
According to the evidence submitted by the prosecutors at the trial of Bogu Kailai, after Heywood was found dead on the morning of November 15, 2011, Guo Weiguo, who has close ties with Bogu Kailai’s family, was designated to handle the case by Wang Lijun.
Through interviews and on-the-scene investigations, Guo and other defendants found that Bogu Kailai was highly suspected of committing the crime. They covered up Bogu Kailai’s presence at the scene by fabricating interview records, hiding material evidence and other measures.
Guo and the other three decided through consultations to list the official cause of Heywood’s death as sudden death after drinking alcohol, and did not put it on file as a criminal case. They also persuaded Heywood’s family members to accept their conclusion of the cause of death and cremated the body in Chongqing without performing an autopsy.
The court said that the judgment would be given at a later date.