Gu Kailai Guilty -Based on previous precedents, Gu Kailai, the wife of the Community Party official, Bo Xilai, in China who murdered a British businessman with poison, could wind up spending just nine years in jail.
Gu was given a suspended death sentence for the crime, which essentially means life in prison, but the court appears to be receptive to the idea that Gu is suffering from mental problems. In previous cases, including with Jiang Qing, the widow of Chairman Mao Zedong, prisoners with suspended death sentences who get medical have been freed after serving less than a decade. Jiang Qing was released on medical parole from Qincheng prison in 1991—10 years after being given a suspended death sentence with a two-year reprieve for her role in the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution. Jiang committed suicide the year of her release.
In addition to the lighter sentence, Gu will be doing her time in a prison for high-profile political figures that is considered relatively comfortable.
Gu confessed her guilt in the homicide of a British businessman last November. Gu’s husband had served as party secretary to the Chinese Communist Party until recently. Both Gu and her butler admitted to poisoning the man, 41-year-old Neil Heywood, who was in the midst of a financial dispute with the family.
According to the San Francisco-based rights group Dui Hua Foundation, most suspended sentences were commuted to life in prison, and people serving life sentences were usually eligible for medical parole after seven years of their sentences being commuted, the organization said in a statement on its website.
“Nine years from now, if she can convince the prison that she is suffering from a serious illness, there would be a legal basis to release her,” Joshua Rosenzweig, an expert on China’s criminal-justice system at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, told the Wall Street Journal.
Yao Bo, a popular newspaper columnist and social commentator, wrote on the web: “How wonderful life is, how handy the law can be, as long as you have the party to protect you.”
