Chinese Politician’s Wife Charged with Murder

Posted July 26th, 2012 at 5:40 pm (UTC-5)
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Chinese prosecutors on Thursday charged the wife of former senior Communist Party official Bo Xilai and a family aide with the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood.

China's official news media say Bo Gu Kailai and Zhang Xiaojun were charged with intentional homicide in the eastern city of Hefei. The trial date has not been set.

Xinhua agency reported that results of an investigation show that Gu and her son had conflicts with Heywood over “economic interests.” It says the politician's wife worried about Heywood's threat to her son's personal security and poisoned him to death with the help of Zhang. The British businessman died in November.

Bo Xilai was a rising star in the Chinese Communist Party, serving as party chief of the city of Chongqing until authorities removed him from the post in March as part of a massive corruption probe.

The scandal erupted in February when a longtime family aide fled to a U.S. consulate and made accusations of Gu's involvement in the Heywood murder. Bo is under house arrest.