Beijing: Following the murder of UK businessman, Neil Heywood, in Chongqing last November in the Bo Xilai scandal, Chinese authorities reportedly began an elaborate cover-up soon after the incident.
According to the BBC, the police who arrived at the hotel in Chongquing, where Heywood was murdered, immediately knew he had been killed and panicked when they realised the case could be linked to top Communist Party leader, Bo Xilai and his wife, Gu Kailai.
It was only this month that authorities promised an investigation and named Gu as a suspect. The 41-year-old British businessman was found dead in a hotel in Chongqing on 15 November last year.
Local officials initially told Heywood’s family that he died of excessive drinking, while Heywood hardly ever touched alcohol. It emerged later that he had been poisoned by cyanide which led to his death. Li Jun, a businessman who is also involved in scandal, and was linked to Bo, claimed that he was not guilty of the crimes he was convicted of and now wanted justice.
He even said that he was tortured.
“They stabbed me with a pen if I disagreed with them. They slapped me, kicked me, hit me with an ashtray,” he said.
The flamboyant party supremo Bo was sacked and is currently under a probe, following the arrest of his wife, Gu, and Zhang Xiaojun, an orderly their home, on charges of murder. Zhang reportedly assisted Gu in committing the murder.
The Chinese authorities have promised the UK government a thorough investigation into Heywood`s death, which is widely being touted as one of China’s biggest political scandals in decades.
ANI
