By BARBARA DEMICK | Los Angeles Times
By BARBARA DEMICK
The British government has requested China open an investigation into the mysterious death of a 41-year-old British businessman who had been friendly with the family of Bo Xilai, the recently purged Communist Party secretary of Chongqing.
Neil Heywood died in November in a hotel in Chongqing; the cause was ruled to be "excessive alcohol consumption" and his body was cremated. But earlier this year, the case was reopened "based on new information from one of our contacts," according to a spokesman for the British embassy in Beijing.
"Our role is only consular. ... We are requesting that the Chinese government investigate the death," said the spokesman Monday.
Heywood apparently met Bo, 62, a decade ago in Dalian, where Bo had been mayor. Heywood enjoyed sailing and luxury cars and was a graduate of the same fancy British boarding school, Harrow, where Bo's son, Bo Guagua, later studied.
Heywood appeared to flit from job to job in China, where he had lived for more than a decade. He was photographed - wearing a beige linen suit and green tie - at a luxury goods conference where he was described as working for the car company Aston Martin. He also worked briefly as an adviser for a company doing initial public offerings of stock.
"He walked into our office one day, presenting himself as a consultant. He claimed he had done a few projects helping Chinese companies do IPOs abroad," said Shen Wei, who runs Beijing HL Consulting Co., which used to list Heywood as one of its advisers. Shen said Heywood never ended up doing any deals with them and that they only learned of his death recently.
Rumors about Heywood's death have surfaced in recent days on Chinese websites, which have described him (apparently erroneously) as a butler for Bo's son. Though most posts have been quickly deleted, Chinese appear to be relishing a rare public intrigue.
Bo Xilai, wrote a Chinese journalist, Yang Haipeng, is like a "more insidious version of Lady Macbeth."
Bo, once a contender for high office in China, was sacked earlier this month after one of his closest confidantes sought political asylum at a U.S. consulate in western China, claiming that his life was in danger. Wang Lijun, who had been a top police official, also turned over a stack of documents said to be incriminating.
According to a leaked Chinese investigative report, Wang had earlier confronted Bo with complaints from police who said they were being pressured in their investigation of a case related to Bo's family. Chinese websites have speculated that the case might be the death of the family friend, Heywood.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Wang told Bo he believed Heywood had been poisoned. In addition, the newspaper said a source claimed Bo's wife, Gu Kailai, a former lawyer, had a business dispute with Heywood.
so nooooow it's allll comming together
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Originally Posted by RollingWave
Brilliant!
