Bogu Kailai stands trial for intentional homicide

HEFEI, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- The intentional homicide trial of Bogu Kailai and Zhang Xiaojun began Thursday in the Hefei City Intermediate People's Court in Anhui Province.

The People's Procuratorate of Hefei City, capital of east China's Anhui Province, filed the charges against the two in the Hefei City Intermediate People's Court on July 26.

Bogu Kailai and her son surnamed Bo had conflicts with Neil Heywood over economic interests. Worrying about Neil Heywood's threat to her son's personal security, Bogu Kailai decided to murder Heywood.

She asked Zhang Xiaojun, the other defendant and then an employee of the general office of the Chongqing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), to invite Heywood to Chongqing Municipality in southwest China and to accompany him from Beijing. Heywood stayed in Room No. 1605 of the 16th building of a vacation resort, the Lucky Holiday Hotel, in Chongqing.

On Nov. 13, 2011, Bogu Kailai met Heywood in his hotel room for a drink. After Heywood was drunk, vomited and asked for water, she put the poison she had prepared, and which Zhang had brought along to the hotel room, into Heywood's mouth, which led to Heywood's death.

The prosecuting body said the facts of the two defendants poisoning the victim to death are clear and the evidence is substantial.

Their behavior has violated Article 232 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China; therefore, the two defendants should be held criminally responsible for intentional homicide, according to the prosecuting body.

The case is a joint offense with Bogu Kailai as the principal and Zhang Xiaojun as the accessory, the prosecuting body said.

The Hefei City Intermediate People's Court accepted the case according to the decision designating jurisdiction made by the Supreme People's Court, and delivered a copy of the indictment in a timely way to the two defendants Bogu Kailai and Zhang Xiaojun, and also informed the two defendants and the close relatives of the victim of their litigation rights and obligations.

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