Alleged Poisoning Details in Bo Xilai-Linked Murder Case
- 12 years ago
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The continuing scandal of disgraced Chinese politican Bo Xilai took an unexpected turn last week with the arrest of his wife, Gu Kailai, for the murder of UK citizen Neil Heywood. Now new allegations have appeared on Chinese-language websites, claiming to divulge additional details of this case at the center of China's Communist Party political struggle.
When UK-businessman Neil Heywood turned up dead in the city of Chongqing, his body was swiftly cremated. Local government sources then claimed that his cause of death had been "excessive alcohol consumption". Close friends, however, found this explanation deeply unlikely given that Heywood seldom drank.
Now, new accounts relayed by Chinese-language websites Boxun and Baidu claim that the cause of Heywood's death was poisoning by cyanide. The alleged source of this information is one of the Chongqing officials who ordered the act, at the orders of now disgraced Communist Party leader Bo Xilai and his wife, Gu Kailai. Heywood had been a close associate of the power couple, and is widely reported to have both mentored their UK-educated son and to have assisted them with various murky financial dealings...including allegedly moving 800-million pounds overseas.
The case was dramatically reopened this past week, when Gu Kailai was arrested and held on charges of planning the murder. Bo Xilai, meanwhile, was stripped of all of his Communist Party posts. State sources claimed that the couple had a conflict with Heywood over unspecified "economic interests." So far the specific allegation of cyanide poisoning has not been corroborated by any official investigation.
Although there is no way to judge the authenticity of the anonymous tale, the site Boxun does in some cases privately confirm the sources of its stories.
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The continuing scandal of disgraced Chinese politican Bo Xilai took an unexpected turn last week with the arrest of his wife, Gu Kailai, for the murder of UK citizen Neil Heywood. Now new allegations have appeared on Chinese-language websites, claiming to divulge additional details of this case at the center of China's Communist Party political struggle.
When UK-businessman Neil Heywood turned up dead in the city of Chongqing, his body was swiftly cremated. Local government sources then claimed that his cause of death had been "excessive alcohol consumption". Close friends, however, found this explanation deeply unlikely given that Heywood seldom drank.
Now, new accounts relayed by Chinese-language websites Boxun and Baidu claim that the cause of Heywood's death was poisoning by cyanide. The alleged source of this information is one of the Chongqing officials who ordered the act, at the orders of now disgraced Communist Party leader Bo Xilai and his wife, Gu Kailai. Heywood had been a close associate of the power couple, and is widely reported to have both mentored their UK-educated son and to have assisted them with various murky financial dealings...including allegedly moving 800-million pounds overseas.
The case was dramatically reopened this past week, when Gu Kailai was arrested and held on charges of planning the murder. Bo Xilai, meanwhile, was stripped of all of his Communist Party posts. State sources claimed that the couple had a conflict with Heywood over unspecified "economic interests." So far the specific allegation of cyanide poisoning has not been corroborated by any official investigation.
Although there is no way to judge the authenticity of the anonymous tale, the site Boxun does in some cases privately confirm the sources of its stories.