HEFEI, China — The wife of a disgraced Chinese politician received a suspended death sentence Monday for the murder of a British businessman, as authorities move to tidy up a huge political scandal ahead of a once-in-a-decade leadership transition this fall.
Gu Kailai’s sentencing clears the way for the ruling Communist Party to deal with her husband, Bo Xilai, who was formerly one of China’s most prominent politicians before being stripped of his Politburo post in the scandal.
Mr. Bo has not been directly implicated in the murder of Neil Heywood, but is accused of unspecified grave violations of party discipline.
“They are eager to close the case and move on,” said Dali Yang, director of the University of Chicago Center in Beijing.
Mrs. Gu’s suspended sentence will almost certainly be commuted to life in prison after two years, a relatively lenient punishment resulting from her cooperation with investigators and what the court deemed her mental instability at the time of Heywood’s death by cyanide poisoning in November.
Family aide Zhang Xiaojun, accused of abetting the murder, was sentenced to nine years, Hefei Intermediate People’s Court official Tang Yigan told reporters.
Mr. Bo was not called as a witness in the Gu trial, and neither the verdict nor the evidence presented made any mention of him.
The charges against Mrs. Gu and Mr. Zhang also scrupulously avoided any mention of corruption or abuse of power, serving to shield the party’s image from damage.
Four policemen accused of covering up the crime were given sentences from five to 11 years.
State media say Mrs. Gu, 53, confessed to intentional homicide at a one-day trial held in this eastern China city on Aug. 9.
The media reports — the court has been closed to international media — say she and Heywood had a dispute over money and Heywood allegedly threatened her son. State media said the two feuded after Heywood asked for a multimillion dollar commission on a real estate venture that had gone bad.
Mrs. Gu was accused of luring the victim to a Chongqing hotel, getting him drunk and then pouring cyanide into his mouth.
Mr. Tang said Mrs. Gu and Mr. Zhang told the court they would not appeal.
The ruling against Mrs. Gu will set expectations for Mr. Bo to be dealt with severely, said Cheng Li, an expert in Chinese elite politics at the Brookings Institution in Washington.
“If Bo does not get put through the legal process in the next few months, Gu will be seen as a scapegoat,” he said.
State broadcaster CCTV showed Mrs. Gu dressed in a white blouse and black pantsuit briefly addressing the court from inside the dock surrounded by waist-high wooden columns.
“This verdict is just. It shows special respect for the law, reality and life,” Mrs. Gu said in calm, measured phrases.
The sentencing moves China one step closer to resolving its biggest political crisis in two decades that exposed divisions within the leadership and threatened to complicate plans for Vice President Xi Jinping to succeed Hu Jintao as top leader at a party congress expected in October.
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