By John Ruwitch
HEFEI, China | Thu Aug 9, 2012 5:14am EDT
HEFEI, China (Reuters) - China's most politically sensitive trial in three decades ended in just about seven hours on Thursday after the wife of ousted Politburo member Bo Xilai did not contest charges of murdering a British businessman, a court official said.
A verdict will be delivered at a later date.
The official's account of the closed-door hearing in the eastern Chinese city of Hefei signals that Gu Kailai and a family aide are sure to be convicted in a case that has ended her husband's career and rocked China's leadership.
"The trial finished this afternoon and the court adjourned," official Tang Yigan told reporters. "The trial committee will announce the verdict after discussion. The date of the verdict will be announced.
"The accused (Gu) Kailai and Zhang Xiaojun did not raise objections to the facts and the charges of intentional homicide."
Gu's trial is seen by many Chinese as part of a push against Bo, an ambitious populist who made powerful enemies as he campaigned to join the next generation of top central leaders.
Bo was formerly considered a contender for the inner sanctum of power - the party's Politburo Standing Committee - in a once-in-a-decade leadership transition that is currently underway. The new leadership is expected to be unveiled in October.
Gu and her co-accused were charged with poisoning Briton Neil Heywood, a family friend, last year. The official said the court was told Zhang, the family aide, had put poison in a drink of water that Gu then gave to Heywood who was drunk at the time.
His body was found last November in a hotel in Chongqing, the city where Bo was the Communist Party chief.
Gu and Zhang face the death penalty if convicted. But many legal experts expect Gu will be convicted but only sentenced to a lengthy jail term.
Entry to the courtroom, in the capital of Anhui province, was restricted but two British diplomats were invited to be present because of the nationality of the victim. Journalists were not allowed in.
As the trial took place, police dragged away two Bo supporters into an unmarked car after they had appeared outside the courthouse, singing patriotic songs that were the trademark of Bo's populist leadership style and condemning the trial as a sham.
"I don't believe it. This case was decided well in advance," Hu Jiye, a middle-aged man wearing a T-shirt and baseball cap, told foreign reporters at the rear of the court building, which was cordoned off by dozens of police standing in heavy rain.
Hu and his friend were then shoved by plainclothed police into a car. His companion, also a middle-aged man, struggled, yelling "Why are you taking me? Why are you taking me?"
INTERNET CHATTER CENSORED
State censorship of Internet chatter on the trial was swifter than normal on Thursday, with users of China's popular Twitter-like service Sina Weibo playing cat and mouse with censors to discuss the case, using word play to try and get around the controls.
Gu, herself a career lawyer, was defended by a state-appointed lawyer with meager experience in criminal cases, leaving little doubt she will be convicted.
The state has decided who will represent Gu, denying her the use of a family lawyer - a move that has also prompted Gu's 90-year-old mother, Fan Xiucheng, to recently complain to the Justice Ministry, according to a source close to the family.
"The answer (from the ministry) was that the legal process did not have to be fully carried out in this case and that Fan should stop pestering them," the source said.
The trial of Gu, glamorous daughter of the ruling Communist Party aristocracy, is the most sensational since the conviction of the Gang of Four more than 30 years ago for crimes during the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution.
But despite British calls for the case to be handled fairly and to unearth the truth around Heywood's death, her defense has instead been entrusted to two provincial lawyers.
The two lawyers, Jiang Min and Zhou Yuhao, could not be reached for comment but a search of public information shows the more senior attorney, Jiang, is a specialist in financial cases and that neither has any obvious connection to the Bo family.
A newspaper profile of Jiang from 2005, which was posted on Jiang's own website, quoted him as saying that he was "an expert in financial law, who rarely conducts criminal defenses", although he has represented some officials accused of corruption in the more than 20 years he has been practicing law.
Little is known of Gu's other lawyer, Zhou, except that he, like Jiang, is from Anhui province. Provincial capital Hefei is a bustling city more than 1,000 km (650 miles) east of the scene of the alleged crime - Chongqing, the vast municipality formerly ruled by Bo.
GREEDY WIFE OR PROTECTIVE MOTHER?
Police sources initially claimed Gu had poisoned Heywood in a dispute over an illicit financial transaction she had wanted him to help her complete, and they portrayed Gu as a greedy wife who was translating her husband's connections into dollars.
But when Gu was formally indicted, the official allegation instead hinted at a personal motive, saying Heywood had made unspecified threats against her son Bo Guagua, a factor that may count as a mitigating circumstance and help Gu avoid execution.
The younger Bo, who is believed to be still in the United States after graduating from Harvard this summer, told CNN in an e-mail that he had submitted a witness statement to the court.
"I hope that my mother will have the opportunity to review them," he added. "I have faith that facts will speak for themselves." CNN said he did not elaborate.
The trial and sentencing of both Gu and Zhang are widely seen as a prelude to a possible criminal prosecution of Bo, who is being detained for violating party discipline - an accusation that covers corruption, abuse of power and other misdeeds.
Bo, who was a favorite of party leftists by promoting himself as a friend of the poor and an enemy of corruption, was sacked as Chongqing party chief in March after his police chief, Wang Lijun, identified Gu as a suspect in Heywood's death.
On Thursday morning, there was no sign of Gu's elderly mother, nor of any members of Heywood's family in or around the courtroom.
(Additional reporting by Chris Buckley, Benjamin Kang Lim and Ben Blanchard in BEIJING; Writing by Mark Bendeich; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
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