China's Gu Kailai gets suspended death sentence for Neil Heywood murder

Beijing, Aug. 20 (ANI): Gu Kailai, the wife of disgraced Chinese politician Bo Xilai, has been given a suspended death sentence for the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood.

The lawyer, He Zhengsheng, representing Heywood's family said that Gu has been awarded a suspended death sentence, which is usually transformed to life imprisonment after two years.

Zhengsheng said that Kailai's family aide Zhang Xiaojun has been jailed for nine years.

"I respect the sentence from the court. I have not met the relatives. We will discuss this later. The court had reasons," The Guardian quoted Zhengsheng, as saying.

According to the report, Zhengsheng said that Gu was allowed to make a statement to the court, but did not provide further details.

Analysts had thought it was likely that Kailai would be given the suspended death sentence, after her one day trial earlier this month pointed to mental health issues and claimed that she had killed the Briton because she feared for her son's life, the report said.

According to the report, in a statement, a spokesperson for the British Embassy in Beijing said: "We welcome the fact that the Chinese authorities have investigated the death of Neil Heywood, and tried those they identified as responsible".

"We consistently made clear to the Chinese authorities that we wanted to see the trials in this case conform to international human rights standards and for the death penalty not to be applied," the report quoted spokesperson, as saying. (ANI)