This video image taken from CCTV shows Gu Kailai, center, the wife of disgraced politician Bo Xilai, standing trial in the Intermediate People’s Court in the eastern Chinese city of Hefei Thursday Aug. 9, 2012. According to testimony Thursday in one of China’s highest-profile murder trials in years, Gu lured British businessman Neil Heywood to a hotel in the southwestern mega-city of Chongqing, where she got him drunk and fed him poison. The secretive trial of Gu and a household aide, who are accused of murdering Bo family associate Heywood, ended in less than a day at the court.HEFEI, China – Testimony in China’s most closely watched murder case in decades wrapped up within hours on Thursday as the wife of disgraced politician Bo Xilai stood accused of luring a British businessman to a hotel, getting him drunk and pouring poison into his mouth.
No verdict or sentence was immediately announced for Gu Kailai, who was tried with a household aide in the death of close family associate Neil Heywood. The defendants did not contest the murder charges. A guilty verdict is all but assured and could carry a death sentence.
The tightly orchestrated court proceeding marks a step toward resolving the messiest scandal the Communist leadership has faced in two decades.
Bo was one of China’s most powerful and charismatic politicians until he was ousted in the spring as the scandal surrounding Heywood’s death unfolded. Observers say the party’s main objective is to keep the focus tightly on the murder case and not on larger allegations of corruption that could further taint the regime.
International media were barred from the trial at the Intermediate People’s Court in the eastern Chinese city of Hefei. Details of the case against Gu were provided afterward by Tang Yigan, the court’s deputy director.