Neil Heywood was a British businessman who worked in China. He was associated with
Bo Xilai, the former
Communist Party of China Committee Secretary for
Chongqing and a member of the
Chinese Politburo died from poison he was 41..
(20 October 1970 – 14 November 2011)
Heywood was found dead in his hotel room in
Chongqing, and the initial official reports (which have subsequently been challenged) attributed his death to
alcohol poisoning. Media reports have suggested that the former chief of police under Bo,
Wang Lijun, may have had information about Heywood's death.
[2] Wang
fled to the US consulate in Chengdu on 6 February 2012 and allegedly told US diplomats that Heywood had been poisoned, and that Bo's family was involved in
corruption.
[3] The
Wang Lijun incident precipitated Bo's high-profile sacking two weeks later.
[3] According to a reinvestigation by the Chinese authorities, evidence indicates that Heywood was murdered, with
Gu Kailai, Bo Xilai's wife, and Zhang Xiaojun, an orderly at Bo's home, "highly suspected,"
[4][5] according to
Xinhua News.
[6] On 26 July 2012, Gu Kailai was charged with the murder of Neil Heywood
[7] and in August convicted of the crime.
Personal life
Born in 1970, Heywood attended the
English public school Harrow[3] between 1984 and 1988.
[1] He graduated in international relations from the
University of Warwick.
[8]
He spent more than a decade in China, and was a Chinese speaker. He was married to Wang Lulu, a Chinese national from
Dalian, and had two children,
[9][10] 11-year-old Olivia and seven-year-old Peter,
[11] who both attend the Beijing branch of
Dulwich College.
[12]
They lived in a private, tree-lined compound of expensive villas on the
outskirts of Beijing . Mr Heywood drove an S-type Jaguar, with a Union
Jack bumper sticker.
[13]
Heywood was not a heavy drinker, but was a chain smoker. His father,
Peter, died of a heart attack after drinks over dinner at his London
home in 2004 at age 63, according to family members.
[14]
Career
Heywood served as an intermediary linking western companies to powerful figures in the Chinese political structure.
[15]
He ran a company named Heywood Boddington Associates, registered at his
mother's house in London. It claims to be "a multi-discipline
consultancy focusing on serving the interests of UK businesses in the
People's Republic of China".
[8]
He developed a business relationship with
Gu Kailai, a lawyer, businesswoman, and the wife of Bo Xilai. Both Gu and Bo are children of once-prominent members of the
Chinese Communist Party. Heywood appears to have played the role of a
Bai Shoutao or
white glove
for the Bo family, doing business on their behalf, since, as a
prominent party family, they could not sully their hands with financial
dealings.
[16]
Businessmen have complained that any foreign company wishing to work
in Chongqing had to appoint Gu Kailai's law firm to act on its behalf,
failing which it could not get required permissions and licenses. The
law firm, Kailai Law (now Beijing Ang-dao Law), is said to have charged
exorbitant fees.
[15]
Heywood had clients including Beijing
Aston Martin dealerships and
Rolls-Royce. He was hired occasionally by
Hakluyt & Company, a
consultancy firm co-founded by a former officer in Britain's
MI6 intelligence service.
[15][17][18]
Rumours that Heywood might have been employed as an agent by British intelligence have been denied by Foreign Secretary
William Hague, an unusual move, as the British government typically refuses to comment on the identity of its agents.
[19] The
Wall Street Journal
later reported that they had confirmed, after interviewing former and
current British officials and others, that Heywood had since 2009 been
regularly supplying information to the
Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), although he was not a MI6 employee.
[18][20]
Relationship with Bo Xilai and Gu Kailai
Heywood had business links with
Gu Kailai, the wife of Bo Xilai.
[21] He reportedly met with the Bo family in
Dalian,
the northeast metropolis where Bo was mayor from 1994 to 2000. Heywood
was then working at a Dalian English-language school and helped Bo's
youngest son gain admission to Harrow.
[17]
The
Daily Mail has suggested that Heywood and Gu may have been involved in an extra-marital affair.
[22] The Daily Telegraph, however, reports that the two "shared a long and close personal relationship, but were not romantically involved."
[23]
Following a corruption investigation in 2007, Gu is said to have
become increasingly paranoid. In 2010, she allegedly asked Heywood and
other close associates to divorce their spouses and swear allegiance to
her.
[24]
Reuters news agency reported (based on a source in Chongqing who had
been briefed by government investigators) that Heywood told Gu that he
had the power to ruin her and her family, based on his knowledge of
overseas funds transfers made by the Bo family. This was the first time
that a possible motive for the businessman's murder had been reported.
[25]
Gu and Heywood are said to have had a financial disagreement in October
2011. Reportedly, Gu was trying to move a large amount of yuan out of
China through Heywood, and he demanded a larger commission than usual.
When Gu objected, he is said to have made a veiled threat to expose her
dealing.
[23]
Death
On 14 November, Heywood was summoned to Chongqing by Gu Kailai.
[citation needed] She sent Zhang Xiaojun to bring him from Beijing to the Nanshan Lijing Holiday Hotel.
[26][27] Zhang Xiaojun is described as an 'orderly' in the Bo household. Aged 32, he used to serve as a bodyguard for
Bo Yibo
(one of the Founding Fathers of People's Republic of China). He is also
listed as the supervisor of the Guagua Technology Company, belonging to
Bo Guagua.
[27]
The Nanshan Lijing Holiday Hotel is a secluded three-star hilltop retreat, also marketed as the Lucky Holiday Hotel.
[26][27] Gu Kailai is known to have hosted a banquet there in the past, but according to two sources quoted by
The Daily Telegraph in the UK, was not at the scene at the time of Heywood's murder.
[23] The hotel is located in and overlooks
Nan'an District.
Heywood was found in his hotel room, 26 hours after his death. The cause of death was given as
alcohol poisoning. There was no
autopsy and he was cremated days later. Questions were raised later as friends described him as "not a serious drinker"
[9] (some reports have his family describing him as "a
teetotaler").
[28]
An internal Chinese report confirmed that Heywood died from potassium cyanide added to his drink.
[26][29] However, further investigations led to new findings suggesting the death of Heywood was a murder committed by
Gu Kailai.
[30]
Aftermath
Two days after Heywood's death, according to internet reports related by the
Daily Mail,
Gu Kailai met with Heywood's wife and urged her to permit immediate
cremation without an autopsy. Kailai was accompanied by two armed guards
in this exchange.
[22]
British Foreign Office minister Jeremy Browne met Bo Xilai in China a
few days later, but didn't raise the question of Heywood's death.
[22]
Wang Lijun, who was the head of Chongqing police department as well
as the vice mayor of Chongqing, was in charge of the investigation.
According to a CPC internal report,
[31][32]
Wang Lijun and his lieutenants were said to be under political pressure
during the investigations. Soon Wang Lijun found the murder was related
to Bo Xilai, who had been his superior for more than 10 years. After
submitting the investigation report to Bo Xilai, Wang Lijun was
suspended by Bo. Some of the police officers who participated in the
investigation were arrested.
[citation needed]
In February 2012, Wang Lijun fled to the US consulate in Chengdu, precipitating the so-called
Wang Lijun incident.
On 14 March 2012, the Dalian based billionaire Xu Ming, a close
associate of Bo, disappeared. It was speculated that he was under
arrest. Reports suggest Heywood's wife was employed by Xu.
[33][34] On 15 March 2012, Bo Xilai was removed from his post of party chief for Chongqing.
[34]
On 10 April 2012, Bo Xilai was suspended from the Politburo and
suspected of being involved in "serious disciplinary violations".
[4][5] The same day, the state-run
Xinhua News Agency
said that, according to the reinvestigation, the evidence indicated
Heywood was a victim of homicide, of which Bo Xilai's wife, Gu Kailai,
and Zhang Xiaojun, her bodyguard, were "strongly suspected".
[4][5][35] Bo was placed under house arrest in Beijing. Gu and Zhang were both arrested.
[5]
The Communist Party chief in Nan'an, Xia Zeliang, was detained for
questioning in April 2012; the official was a staunch ally of Bo.
[36] He was arrested and allegedly confessed that he prepared the poison and handed it to an employee of Bo.
[22]
On 13 April 2012, Heywood's widow, Wang Lulu, visited the
British Embassy in
Beijing,
and asked for a visa to travel to the UK with her two young children,
reportedly concerned that the people who had killed her husband might
come after her and her family. The entrance to the family's gated
compound in Beijing was manned by troops from the
People's Liberation Army, and police ordered her not to communicate with international journalists.
[37]
According to
The Daily Telegraph of 17 April 2012, UK Prime Minister
David Cameron would meet Chinese publicity department head
Li Changchun to discuss the Heywood case.
[25] The
Boxun
website reported that Bo's most influential supporter, the 9th ranking
Politburo Standing Committee member Zhou Yongkang, was forced to make
"tearful self-confessions" to Hu Jintao.
[33]
Legal process
On 26 July 2012, Gu Kailai was charged with the murder of Neil Heywood.
[7] On 9 August 2012, the trial of Gu Kalai was held and lasted only one day, as the defendant
did not contest the charges.
[38]
The same day, four policemen, all senior officers from Chongqing, where
the UK businessman was killed, were formally accused of covering up the
murder of Heywood and indicted to go on trial.
[38]
On 20 August 2012, the verdict was announced. Gu Kailai was sentenced
to death but the sentence was suspended, which means that Gu is likely
to face from 14 years to life in jail,
[39] if she does not commit offences in the next two years.
[40] Zhang Xiaojun, a Bo family aide, was sentenced to nine years in jail for his involvement in the murder,
[39] which he admitted to.
[41]
Following the verdict, Britain's embassy in China stated, in an
e-mailed
press release, that it had welcomed the investigation, adding "[we]
consistently made clear to the Chinese authorities that we wanted to see
the trials in this case conform to international human rights standards
and for the death penalty not to be applied."
[39][40] BBC News
commented that "informed observers see the fingerprints of the
Communist Party of China all over this outcome", stating that the
trial's conclusion was "all too neat and uncannily suited to one
particular agenda", that of limiting the scandal's damage.
[42]
Both Zhang Xiaojun and Gu Kailai declined to exercise their right to an
appeal.
[40]
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