BEIJING, Aug 20: Disgraced Chinese politician Bo Xilai’s wife Gu Kailai, who confessed to murdering a British businessman, was today handed down a suspended death sentence by a Hefei court in a high-profile case that triggered a major political scandal in ruling CPC and cost her husband his job.
Intermediate People’s Court in Hefei city, which conducted a day-long trial on August 9, sentenced 54-year-old Gu to death with a two-year reprieve for intentional homicide, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
According to legal analysts here, the suspended death sentence could be converted to life imprisonment after two years by court, depending on the conduct of the convicted person.
Gu’s orderly Zhang Xiaojun, who admitted to assisting her in administering cyanide to 41-year-old British businessman Neil Heywood in November last year, was sentenced to nine years in prison.
Regarded as one of the most politically significant murder trials in China in recent times, Gu’s conviction sealed the political career of her 63-year-old husband Bo, who was a powerful leader of the CPC before the case came to light.
He has already been sacked from all the posts he held in the CPC, including that of the Chief of Chongquing city, and faced disciplinary investigations by the party, pending trial for attempting to cover up Gu’s role in the murder of their family friend Heywood.
Until Heywood’s murder came to light, Bo, considered a hard-line Maoist leader, was the front-runner for one of the top posts of the ruling Communist Party of China, which is gearing up for the leadership change this year.
President Hu Jintao and other top leaders of the party are poised to retire this year after a decade long-stint in power. The 18th Party Congress which would select the new leaders is set to meet in November. (PTI)
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