Plot thickens on the Heywood / Bo Xilai an a Gu Kalai matter.....

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/9205250/Neil-Heywood-poisoned-by-cyanide-drops-in-China.html

Neil Heywood was murdered on the orders of a fallen Communist Party chief, according to the reports.

The Mail on Sunday quoted ''respected Mandarin-language websites'' saying Mr Heywood, 41, died from cyanide poisoning after allegedly having an affair with lawyer Gu Kailai, wife of Bo Xilai, seen until recently as a future leader of China.

Mr Heywood was found dead on November 15 in Chongqing, in central China.

Britain asked China to investigate his death and it emerged last week that Mrs Gu was being probed for ''intentional homicide''.

The newspaper said it was alleged that Mr Heywood was murdered after helping Mrs Gu to siphon nearly £800 million of assets overseas.

A city official has allegedly confessed that he prepared the poison and handed it to an employee of Mr Bo, who administered it to Mr Heywood on the party chief's instructions.

Mr Heywood was a friend of the family of Mr Bo, a former rising star in Chinese politics who served as local party chief in Chongqing.

At the time, Chinese officials said the British expat died of ''excessive alcohol consumption''.

But friends questioned this, saying the businessman was not a heavy drinker.

In February, Mr Bo's former Police Chief Wang Lijun sought refuge in the US consulate in China.

It is thought he made a number of claims against the politician and Mrs Gu, including her alleged role in Mr Heywood's death.

State media reported on Tuesday that Mrs Gu and Zhang Xiaojun, an orderly at Mr Bo's home, had been arrested.

Meanwhile Mr Bo has been suspended from the Communist Party's 25-member Politburo amid allegations of ''serious discipline violations''.

A Foreign Office (FCO) spokeswoman said yesterday: ''We are aware of the latest media reports. As there is an ongoing Chinese police investigation into this case it wouldn't be appropriate to comment further. We remain in close touch with the Chinese authorities and Mr Heywood's family.''

It was reported on Saturday that the Foreign Office was facing increasing questions over delays in its intervention.

Reports said it had emerged that a British diplomat and two Chinese policemen attended Mr Heywood's cremation in Chongqing shortly after he was killed.

But the British did not raise questions with the Chinese until three months later, despite locally based British businessmen urging the Foreign Office to intervene, the newspaper said.

An FCO spokesman said: ''As we became more concerned about this case, including following suggestions from the business community, we took the decision to ask the Chinese authorities to launch an investigation.

''We acted as soon as we thought concerns about the case justified it.

''We are pleased that the Chinese have now launched that investigation. We were in constant contact with the family throughout and kept them informed of our actions.''

Prime Minister David Cameron said on Wednesday during a Far East tour that he was pleased the Chinese authorities were taking action over the murder.

He said: ''We did ask the Chinese to hold an investigation and we are pleased that they are now doing that.

''It is very important we get to the truth of what happened in this very disturbing case, this very tragic case.''

Mr Heywood had lived in China for 10 years and was fluent in Mandarin. He had two children with his Chinese wife.

And as with Libya and a famous plane bombing over Scotland , we see once again that the UK places its economic interests above investigating murder ....

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304356604577342063192698428.html?mod=WSJ_World_MIDDLENews

British consular officials in China expressed suspicion over the death of a British businessman in its immediate aftermath last November, but the case wasn't pursued because other U.K. officials believed that asking the Chinese to investigate would be problematic, according to accounts from several people familiar with the matter.

These people said some British officials also knew back in November that the businessman's Chinese wife had come under intense pressure from local police to agree to a swift cremation without an autopsy after his body was found in his hotel room in Chongqing.

The death of the businessman, Neil Heywood, has led to the biggest political crisis in more than two decades in China. The Chinese government announced Tuesday that a top Communist Party official Mr. Heywood was close to, Bo Xilai, had been removed from all his posts, and his wife, Gu Kailai, was held as a suspect in the murder of Mr. Heywood.

The saga is now also raising difficult questions for the British government, which didn't ask for an investigation into Mr. Heywood's death until mid-February and has repeatedly said it had no reason initially to be suspicious about his demise.

The thorny problems raised by Mr. Heywood's death also come at a time when the U.K. has intensified efforts to boost British exports to China and attract more Chinese investment in the hopes of helping the U.K. economy out of its doldrums.

Mr. Heywood's death in Chongqing came just a day or so before a U.K. minister visited the city and met with Mr. Bo.

A spokeswoman for the U.K. foreign office said late Friday: "As we became more concerned about this case, including following suggestions from the business community, we took the decision to ask the Chinese authorities to launch an investigation. We acted as soon as we thought concerns about the case justified it. We are pleased that the Chinese have now launched that investigation. We were in constant contact with the family throughout and kept them informed of our actions."

The U.K.'s delayed response to Mr. Heywood's death has begun to raise questions in political circles. Menzies Campbell, a member of Parliament and former leader of the Liberal Democrat party, questioned why the Conservative Party-led government waited so long to ask for an investigation. Mike Gapes, a Labour Party lawmaker, said the government should explain the matter to Parliament.

An examination of Mr. Heywood's death and its immediate aftermath indicates that concerns about his demise surfaced immediately among U.K. consular officials in China.

Mr. Heywood, who was 41 years old, had told friends he was part of the Bo family's "inner circle" of friends and advisers but had become concerned for his safety after falling out with Ms. Gu—who, he told friends, thought one of her entourage had betrayed her.

People familiar with the matter say that British officials in the region were aware of Mr. Heywood's close ties to Mr. Bo, who was the Chongqing Communist Party chief and a political rising star, as the Briton had advised many British businesses, attended embassy functions in Beijing and participated in meetings with British business and political figures.

Mr. Heywood told one friend the day before he died that he had been summoned to an emergency meeting with representatives of the Bo family in Chongqing and believed he was "in trouble," according to one person he contacted at the time.

According to people involved in the case, local authorities informed the British consulate in Chongqing of his death on Nov. 16. Local officials said the cause was excessive alcohol consumption. People close to Mr. Heywood say he wasn't a heavy drinker.

Consular officials who dealt with the matter reported to their superiors that his body hadn't been discovered for 36 hours, and expressed serious concern to their superiors after Chinese authorities cremated the body without an autopsy, these people said.

The consular officials also expressed concern over the police pressure on Mr. Heywood's wife, Lulu, and the confusion over the cause of death, with the family in China being told by local officials that he died of a heart attack, rather than alcohol consumption, the people said.

British officials in charge of the matter decided at the time not to pursue the case further or make any public statements about it. It isn't clear who made the final decision or whether the concerns of local officials reached London.

Mr. Heywood's family also didn't request an investigation, and continued to say he had died of a heart attack until China announced on Tuesday it was treating the case as a homicide.

The U.K. didn't request that Chinese officials investigate the death until mid-February. That means the request came after the U.S. government handed Britain evidence about the case provided by Wang Lijun, the former Chongqing police chief, who sought refuge in a U.S. consulate in Chengdu on Feb. 6, according to people familiar with the matter. The British government's request for an investigation became public only in late March.

Even as British officials in China were dealing with the aftermath of his death, they were busy with another matter—making preparations for a visit to Chongqing by Foreign Office Minister Jeremy Browne. He met Mr. Bo there on Nov. 17, according to the Chongqing government.

Mr. Browne didn't raise Mr. Heywood's death with Mr. Bo, and wasn't briefed on Mr. Heywood's death either prior to or during his visit, as the British government at the time wasn't treating the death as suspicious, a person familiar with the matter said.

While in the city, Mr. Browne also test-drove a new alternative-energy car at the site of state-run Chongqing Changan Automobile Co., which the previous year had made a significant investment to establish a research and development center in Britain.

"China is one of our key strategic partners," Mr. Browne said at the time.

A foreign-office spokeswoman said Mr. Browne had no further comment.

Mr. Browne, who is a Liberal Democrat, is one of a number of British dignitaries to have visited Chongqing in recent years.

They include David Cameron, who visited in 2007, before he became prime minister in 2010, and David Miliband, who visited in 2008 when he was foreign secretary. Peter Mandelson, the former European Union trade commissioner, and Prince Andrew, the second son of Queen Elizabeth II, both visited last year.

A person familiar with the matter said Mr. Heywood didn't appear to have a role in arranging visits to Chongqing by Mr. Cameron, Mr. Browne, Mr. Miliband or Prince Andrew, the Duke of York. Another person said the same was true of Mr. Mandelson's trip.

A spokesman for the prince, who visited in his then-role as Britain's trade envoy, said his meeting with Mr. Bo was arranged by the British Embassy and he wasn't aware of Mr. Heywood having played a role. The spokesman added that there is no record of the prince having met Mr. Heywood.

When Mr. Cameron visited Chongqing in 2007, he highlighted the importance of the city to the U.K. by describing it as "possibly the fastest-growing municipality on earth."

"Chongqing is to China in the 21st century what Chicago was to America in the 19th," Mr. Cameron said during a speech at Chongqing University.

On Wednesday, Mr. Cameron said he welcomed the Chinese probe into Mr. Heywood's death, adding that it was "very important we get to the truth of what happened in this very disturbing case, this very tragic case."

Sir Menzies, who sits on the British Parliament's foreign-affairs committee, also welcomed the investigation, but questioned the initial handling of his death.

"The original explanation simply did not stand up to scrutiny, nor a test of credibility," he said. "If British officials were concerned about the circumstances of Mr. Heywood's death in November, then there's no real explanation for the fact it wasn't until February that the British government at a much higher level raised the matter with the Chinese."

Mr. Gapes, who also sits on the foreign-affairs committee, said he would like the government to make a statement about the case to lawmakers.

"They will need to inform Parliament what the situation is as far as they know it," he said. "Clearly, the foreign affairs committee and other committees will want to ask questions about it."