Gu Kailai's fate to be decided today
The fate of Gu Kailai, the high-profile wife of disgraced Chinese Communist Party leader Bo Xilai who has confessed to murdering a British businessman, will be announced on Monday.
Regarded as the most politically significant case, after the trial of Mao Zedong’s wife Jiang Qing 36 years ago which decisively changed the ideological course of Communist Party, the verdict on Gu’s fate was expected to have a significant bearing on this year’s Party Congress.
The one in five year’s Congress for which over 2270 delegates have already been elected would select a new leadership to replace the President Hu Jintao and others who ruled the country for 10 years.
Speculation is rife that Gu would get a death sentence along with her orderly Zhang Xiaojun as she had already confessed her role in Heywood’s murder in November last year.
According to prosecutors, she poured poison into the mouth of British businessman and family friend Neil Heywood.
Excerpts of her confessions released by the official media also stated that she defended her action on the grounds that Heywood threatened the security of her son, Bo Guagua after fallout out over a business deal.
