Wife of Chinese politician poisoned Brit—official

Police officers stand guard at the Hefei City Intermediate People’s Court where the murder trial of Gu Kailai, wife of ousted Chinese politician Bo Xilai, takes place Thursday Aug. 9, 2012 in Hefei, Anhui Province, China. (Gu stood trial Thursday for the murder of a British former associate in a tightly orchestrated proceeding that marks a key step to resolving the messiest scandal the leadership has faced in two decades. AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

HEFEI, China — A Chinese court heard in a one-day murder trial Thursday that the wife of disgraced Chinese politician Bo Xilai got a British businessman drunk and fed poison to him.

The details were released at a news conference after the end of the trial of Gu Kailai and a household aide, who are accused of murdering Neil Heywood, who had close ties to the Bo family.

Tang Yigan, deputy director of the Hefei Intermediate People’s Court in eastern China, did not say when a verdict was expected. He said Gu and the aide, Zhang Xiaojun, did not object to the facts of the indictment against them.

Neither defendant nor their lawyers have ever publicly given their side of the story and neither has been seen for months.

Tang said prosecutors told the court that Gu sent Zhang to meet and accompany Heywood from Beijing to Chongqing. On the night of Nov. 13, Gu went to Heywood’s hotel and drank wine and tea with him.

“When Heywood was drunk and vomited and wanted to drink water, she then took pre-prepared poison that she had asked Zhang Xiaojun to carry and poured it into Heywood’s mouth, killing him,” Tang said.

Tang repeated what the official Xinhua News Agency reported several weeks ago when announcing the indictment: that Gu and Heywood had a dispute over economic interests, and that Gu thought that Heywood was a threat to her son’s safety and decided to have him killed.

Although two British diplomats were allowed into the court under an agreement with China because of Heywood’s nationality, international media were not allowed to attend.

Tang said the prosecutors believed the facts of the crime were clear and the evidence sufficient, and that “Gu Kailai is the main culprit and Zhang is the accomplice.”

He said material evidence, written evidence, witness statements and other materials were presented.