China sentenced the wife of fallen Politburo member Bo Xilai to death yesterday but suspended her execution, setting the stage for a possible final purge of Bo himself in a scandal that has shaken Beijing ahead of a leadership transition.
China sentenced the wife of fallen Politburo member Bo Xilai to death yesterday but suspended her execution, setting the stage for a possible final purge of Bo himself in a scandal that has shaken Beijing ahead of a leadership transition.
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john ruwitch hefei
The sentence means Gu Kailai is likely to face life in jail for murdering British businessman Neil Heywood last year.
It also brings a curtain down on China's most sensational trial in three decades, yet opens a new and more politically dangerous act for the ruling Communist Party – how to deal with Mr Bo, an ambitious and well-connected provincial leader whose downfall exposed rifts in the party.
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