ANDREW JACOBS A Chinese court on Monday handed Gu Kailai,the wife of a disgraced Communist Party leader,a suspended death sentence for killing a British business associate who she reportedly feared was plotting to harm her son. In the China,such a sentence is tantamount to life in prison. Gu could have been executed soon after the guilty verdict was announced,although most analysts had thought such a punishment unlikely. The sentence was announced with a two-year reprieve,meaning that the threat of execution would be lifted after two years,contingent upon her good behaviour. Some legal experts said she could ultimately serve fewer than a dozen years. In news footage televised Monday by the state broadcaster,China Central Television,Gu stood in the dock and praised the verdict. The sentence is just and shows immense respect for the law,reality and life, she said. The verdict and sentence appear to wrap up one of the more lurid chapters of a sweeping scandal that brought down Gus husband,Bo Xilai,and challenged the Communist Party during a politically delicate,once-a-decade leadership transition. Gus main accomplice,Zhang Xiaojun,a household employee,was sentenced to nine years in prison for what was said to be his limited role in helping Gu murder Heywood with a cyanide-based poison. Shortly after the verdict,Tang Yigan,deputy director of the Hefei Intermediate Peoples Court in Anhui Province,said the court weighed Gus confession,her testimony that implicated others and the litany of psychological problems she suffered. In the end,however,he said Heywoods threats in no way justified her crimes. He added that the defendants had agreed to not appeal their sentences. He Zhengsheng,the lawyer for the family of the Briton,Neil Heywood,told reporters outside the courthouse that he did not object to the sentence. Communist Party leaders will now turn their attention to Bo,once an aspirant to the Politburo Standing Committee and the former party boss of the southwestern municipality of Chongqing. Also on Monday,four Chongqing police officials who confessed to helping cover up the murder were sentenced to jail terms ranging from five to 11 years.
