Facts will speak for themselves, says Bo’s son

WASHINGTON: The son of disgraced Chinese politician Bo Xilai has told CNN the “facts will speak for themselves” in the case of his mother, who goes on trial today over the murder of a British businessman.

Bo’s wife Gu Kailai, herself a celebrated lawyer, stands accused of murdering British business associate Neil Heywood – a scandal that has rocked China’s ruling Communist party ahead of a once-in-a-decade handover of power.

Chinese state media had said that Gu feared Heywood posed a threat to the safety of her 24-year-old son Bo Guagua.

In an e-mail to CNN, Bo Guagua, who graduated from Harvard University’s prestigious Kennedy School of Government earlier this year, said he had submitted a witness statement to his mother’s defence team.

“As I was cited as a motivating factor for the crimes accused of my mother, I have already submitted my witness statement,” he wrote. “I hope that my mother will have the opportunity to review them.”

“I have faith that facts will speak for themselves,” Bo Guagua said of the trial, which was scheduled to begin in Hefei.

The CNN report said Bo Guagua did not specify what he had written in his witness statement.

Heywood was found dead last November in his hotel room in the southwestern Chinese mega-city of Chongqing, where bow as communist Party leader until he was stripped of his post in March.

Bo had been seen as a top contender for a seat on the Politburo Standing Committee, the party’s top decision-making body, until a top aide fled to aUS consulate in February and accused Gu of involvement in Heywood’s murder.

The move blew open a political scandal that has exposed deep rifts in the ruling party as the country’s most senior officials prepare to give way to a new generation of leaders later this year.

Seven of the Politburo Standing Committee’s nine members are due to step down as part of the handover. — AFP