Heywood suspected of being a spy by Chinese intelligence
Staff Reporter 2012-11-08 10:55
Gu Kailai was tried for Heywood's murder in August, receiving a suspended death sentence. (Photo/CNS)
Neil Heywood, the British businessman murdered by the wife of the disgraced politician Bo Xilai was suspected of being a spy by the Chinese authorities, reports the New York Times.
While the British government has said that Heywood was never paid or given any mission by the UK's Secret Intelligence Service or MI6 to gather any particular information in China, a political analyst with close ties to the Chinese government told the newspaper that Heywood had been suspected by the Chinese Ministry of State Security for more than a year because of his close ties to Bo and his family.
Heywood had been a confidant of the family since the 1990s, when Bo was mayor of Dalian in China's northeast, later becoming governor of Liaoning, minister of commerce and finally party secretary of Chongqing. As well as assisting Bo's wife Gu Kailai with her business affairs, Heywood also helped the couple's son Bo Guagua to gain admission to Harrow School and Oxford University. "When a minister-level cadre has such relations with a foreigner, they'll definitely be watched," said the analyst.
The Wall Street Journal indicated a few days ago that Heywood had relayed sensitive information regarding the Bo family to an MI6 contact regularly for more than a year. When asked whether Gu killed the British businessman because she thought he was a spy, her lawyer Li Xiaolin said that she had never mentioned it to him. "I have never heard from Gu's family or anyone else that Heywood had any connection with intelligence departments, as a source or a spy," said Li. "Nothing that links Heywood to intelligence work was presented at Gu's trial either."
During her trial in August, Gu said that she poisoned Heywood at a Chongqing hotel in November last year in order to protect her son, claiming that Heywood had threatened him over a bad real estate deal. Gu was given a suspended death sentence for the murder, which is likely to be transmuted to life imprisonment.
Working for a private firm supplying reports about businesses in China named Hakluyt — founded by a former member of British intelligence — and driving a sports car with "007" on his license plate, Heywood liked to cultivate the image of an international man of mystery, naturally drawing the attention of the authorities.
Heywood's death was initially covered up and attributed to a heart attack brought on by excessive alcohol consumption. His family in China was pressured to accept the official explanation and his body was cremated without an autopsy. It was only when Chongqing's police chief Wang Lijun fled to the US consulate in Chengdu in February with evidence of the crime that the British government began to demand that the case be reopened. Wang has also been given a prison sentence of 15 years for abusing his power and for his role in the cover-up. The affair brought about the downfall of Bo, who was removed from his positions in Chongqing but then had to undergo a lengthy wait while the party decided what was to be done about him. He now looks set to face criminal proceedings regarding his own abuses of power in Beijing, and possibly the role he played, if any, in Heywood's death and the cover-up.
