A top scientist who disagreed with evidence used to convict Gu Kailai for the murder of Briton Neil Heywood has resigned just before the trial of Bo Xilai, Gu’s husband.
The ousted Politburo official and Chongqing Party secretary will stand trial on Thursday for corruption, bribery, and abuse of power. Bo was ousted from the Communist Party after his deputy, Wang Lijun, tried to seek asylum at the U.S. Embassy, and revealed that Gu had murdered Heywood, among other scandals.
Leading scientist Wang Xuemei was vice president of the Chinese Forensic Medicine Association, and is a senior official at the Supreme People’s Procuratorate. Wang said in a recent video that she has left her role as vice president due to a series of “ridiculous and false expert conclusions” by the association. She mentioned the case of a student who died after falling onto the subway rails in Beijing three years ago.
The official conclusion was that the young man died from electrocution, but Wang said that he had been struck across the jaw. The surveillance video at the time was apparently automatically deleted.
Last September, Wang wrote on her blog that she doubted Gu Kailai had murdered Heywood using cyanide, as this type of poisoning leaves obvious signs on the victim and none were mentioned during the trial. The post was subsequently deleted.
Speaking with The Daily Telegraph on Aug. 16, Wang said she believes that Heywood was murdered to prevent the disclosure of a secret that was not related to a sexual relationship, but something “bigger and more complicated, unspeakable.”
Wang added: “The root is in northeast China,” referring to the city of Dalian, where Heywood lived during the period that Bo Xilai was mayor, from 1993 to 2000.
