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Neil Heywood Death: British Businessman Was 'Held Down And Forced To Drink Poison'

Huffington Post UK  |  By Posted: 20/04/2012 14:56 Updated: 20/04/2012 15:07

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Neil Heywood

The British businessman whose death in China has sparked an international crisis was held down while poison was poured into his mouth, sensational accounts of the crime have alleged.

Japanese newspaper Daily Yomiuri Online quoted an unnamed state official who said Neil Heywood was pinned to the ground by force as he was murdered.

Heywood, 41, was found dead in a secluded hotel near Congqing in November.

He was a friend of the family of Bo Xilai, a former rising star in Chinese politics who served as local party chief but was suspended from the Politburo in April amid allegations of "serious discipline violations".

Chinese authorities initially said it was down to alcohol overconsumption, but after a police chief from the region attempted to defect to America the murky truth of the killing began to emerge.

The UK subsequently asked China to investigate, which it has now promised to do.

According to the Daily Yomiuri, a senior party official held a briefing on 10 April in which he revealed the method of death.

The official alleged that Bo's wife, Gu Kailai, and a servant named Zhang Xiojun, were behind the killing.

"They tried to poison Heywood with a drink, but he spat it out," the official said. "The two people then forcibly held Heywood down, and poured the poison into his mouth."

Another official said: "The item Heywood spat out was retrieved and stored by the deputy chief of the Chongqing Public Security Bureau, and that has become a decisive piece of evidence."

British foreign secretary Willia Hague said this week that Foreign Office staff were aware on 18 January of rumours that there may have been suspicious circumstances.

But it was not until after a former Chongqing vice-mayor and chief of police Wang Lijun raised the concerns with the US consulate on 6 February that officials informed Hague.

Unconfirmed media reports suggest that police suspect Heywood may have been poisoned after threatening to expose a plan by Bo's wife Gu Kailai to move money abroad.

On Thursday MPs from the Foreign Affairs Select Committee wrote to Hague asking him to clarify if Heywood worked as a spy for the British government.


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The British businessman whose death in China has sparked an international crisis was held down while poison was poured into his mouth, sensational accounts of the crime have alleged. Japanese newsp...
The British businessman whose death in China has sparked an international crisis was held down while poison was poured into his mouth, sensational accounts of the crime have alleged. Japanese newsp...
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buchanallan
10 Fans
06:09 PM on 04/21/2012
Seems like the Chinese Politburo are out to totally destroy Bo Xilai and his family without any evidence. Rumours and allegations don't prove anything. Presumably, there were no samples taken post-mortem to show/suggest cyanide poisoning or the body would not have been disposed of.
We have also heard that Neil Heywood was a spy, where is the evidence? If he was, then the actions of the Chinese might make more sense - kill the spy and destroy his contacts - but this is only adding to the speculation.....The Chinese need to come up with more hard evidence (preferably without torture) rather than this nonsense.
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turkishdelight
34 Fans
12:00 AM on 04/21/2012
As yo ukeep saying no one can know why do you then say you know this and that? YOU do not know.
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turkishdelight
34 Fans
11:59 PM on 04/20/2012
Well at long last actual news. Was geting fed up with which colour dress this one wore or who was dating who.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
elizabethjl
46 Fans
 
11:25 PM on 04/20/2012
What evidence can they possibly have now that he has been cremated?
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eyedinnot
9 Fans
10:05 PM on 04/20/2012
Utter nonsense with no basis in any fact or information whatsoever, the body was cremated strait away.....stinks to high heaven does this!
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MELkay
34 Fans
08:02 PM on 04/20/2012
LETS ALL SEE WHAT CHINEASE JUSTICE IS ALL ABOUT, i think we know ?????
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JohnnyKay
2012
2104 Fans
07:29 PM on 04/20/2012
So much for the Foreign Office having any credibility.
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wincanton man
111 Fans
07:11 PM on 04/20/2012
China has come a long way in 50 years (maybe). I visited the country several times in the sixties and although things may look different today, (I emphasise the word look), have things changed much from when we all had to carry our little red book and a shore-pass with a picture of Mao on it?
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Fozwords
Abandon hope when you post on here
192 Fans
07:07 PM on 04/20/2012
And we still have people in this country who dont condone torture, until all the other nations stop torturing Brits we should join in. its all well and good saying turn the other cheek, what about do unto others as they do unto you.
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PGU
22 Fans
07:03 AM on 04/21/2012
Where is the torture? Those I know who have run sub-lethally foul of cyanide, or of like potent anti-oxidants acting on the same enzyme, report the experience as painless - whatever tales circulate among those who have never knowingly met a single molecule (which we all have, cyanide is quite common in plants, including food-plants). Some even like the taste.
Murder does not justify torture, and conversely.
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Oncewas12
20 Fans
05:01 PM on 04/20/2012
Gradually unfolding story. Surely he was a spy (not likely to be admitted), and I doubt that a small woman and one man could administer poison without some other factors/people.
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Mickey Mouse 1
There are no lies or deceit on a chess board.
180 Fans
05:00 PM on 04/20/2012
I don't believe any of this.
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PGU
22 Fans
03:54 PM on 04/20/2012
Scientifically, rather more credible than earlier claims that cyanide was administered, untasted, at a public banquet, to implausibly delayed effect. Though I would have thought it took more than two people, one being presumptively a woman, to administer it by force to an alerted victim. But tales always grow taller with time.
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