Fresh Neil Heywood web claims add to mystery

Angus Walker

Former ITV News Correspondent

Neil Heywood Credit: Reuters

We interviewed the man behind the Chinese website Boxun on a stream of revelations about the suspected murder of British businessman Neil Heywood for my News at Ten report last night.

Today Boxun has printed more stories based, Boxun insists, on information from well placed sources in China. Their stories about the circumstances surrounding the death of Mr Heywood have had a habit of turning out to be true since the scandal first became public.

However, there are lots of rumours, for example yesterday one UK newspaper was saying Gu Kailai was in the room when Neil Heywood was poisoned, another was saying she wasn't.

The latest claims include the following:

  • Neil Heywood wanted £200 million from the Bo family in commission for moving money overseas on behalf of Bo Xilai, the now disgraced Communist Party boss. Mr Heywood and the Bo family were friends for around 10 years. (That seems like a ridiculously large amount of money ).

  • Neil Heywood was having an affair with Bo Xilai's wife Gu Kailai, who is now accused by the Chinese authorities of killing the British businessman. (I spoke to one person who is well connected in the city of Chongqing which Bo ran as Party boss and where Neil Heywood was found dead, who says the British businessman and Gu Kailai were having an affair).

  • Gu Kailai invited Neil Heywood to Chongqing to celebrate her birthday, reported to be November the 15th. Neil Heywood was found dead on that day last year according to the Foreign Office.

  • The police chief Wang Lijun who told US diplomats that Bo Xilai's wife is suspected of Neil Heywood's murder kept evidence which could prove vital for toxicology tests.

China's former Chongqing Municipality Communist Party Secretary Bo Xilai Credit: Reuters

The other story around today is a report that Bo Xilai was bugging China's leaders. Another claim first made by Boxun but now carried by the The New York Times. The details in the report suggests that Bo was routinely tapping the phones of senior political leaders who came to Chongqing, the city he ran as Party boss.

Worth noting, perhaps, that last year Chongqing announced it was the world's largest surveillance camera network ordering around £1.5 billion worth of cameras and equipment.

Watch Angus Walker's latest report - New revelations in the Neil Heywood case.