(CBS/AP) HEFEI, China - The secretive murder trial of the wife of disgraced Chinese politician Bo Xilai has ended after just one day. There has been no immediate word on when a verdict will be delivered.
Gu Kailai and a household aide face charges of murdering Neil Heywood, a British businessman who had close ties to the Bo family.
The trial is being held the Hefei Intermediate People's Court in eastern China. The accused are being represented by government-appointed lawyers from Anhui province, of which Hefei is the capital.
The court's deputy director Tang Yigan said the trial has ended but would not say when a verdict was expected.
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Although two British diplomats were allowed into the court under an agreement with China because of Heywood's nationality, international media were not allowed in.
Observers said the central leadership's main objectives in Gu's trial were to keep the focus tightly on the murder case and not on larger allegations of corruption that could further taint the communist regime. Beijing also will closely orchestrate publicity to try to convince the domestic audience that the trial had been fair and the international community that justice has been served in the slaying of a foreigner.
The morning of the trial began with a steady downpour. Security was tight around the courthouse, with roads around it blocked to car travel. Reporters were asked to present their IDs before being allowed to get close to the building, but police lines were pulled across the main entrance and guarded by officers. Other entrances were similarly guarded. Dozens of plainclothes security officers loitered around the streets. Several special police vans were parked around the building.
Gu and the aide, Zhang Xiaojun, are likely to be found guilty of intentional homicide, which carries punishment ranging from more than 10 years in jail to a life sentence or the death penalty. In announcing the indictment about two weeks ago, the official Xinhua News Agency made clear the government considers the verdict a foregone conclusion. "The facts of the two defendants' crime are clear, and the evidence is irrefutable and substantial," it said.
Gu and Zhang were accused of poisoning Heywood in November in the southwestern mega-city of Chongqing, where Bo was party chief until his ouster this spring. According to Xinhua, Gu had a falling out with Heywood over money and worried that her son's safety was threatened.
In London, Heywood's mother accused the press of spreading lies about her son. "You've all behaved so appallingly," Ann Heywood said Wednesday outside her home.
British media have suggested Neil Heywood was involved in money laundering, worked for British intelligence or that he was Gu's lover. Ann Heywood claimed to know more about the case than was in the public domain, but she wasn't specific and said the truth would come out eventually.
