The mother of British businessman Neil Heywood, who was murdered by the wife of fallen Chinese political star Bo Xilai, has broken her silence, calling on the Chinese government to award compensation for her son's death.
Ann Heywood, Cambridge-based mother of Neil Heywood, said in a statement ahead of Bo's corruption and abuse of power trial that she had previously declined to comment in the media on the case so as to avoid embarrassing Beijing.
"Circumstances now compel me to break my silence," Heywood said in a statement published in full by the Wall Street Journal's online edition on Monday, adding that she had been "surprised and disappointed" at the lack of official response to the family's attempts to discuss compensation.
"Despite repeated discreet approaches to the Chinese authorities, there has been no substantive or practical response," Heywood said, adding that the family was still experiencing a "nightmare" in the wake of her son's murder.
Bo's trial
Bo, 64, was indicted last month at the Jinan Intermediate People's Court in the eastern province of Shandong and accused of receiving more than 20 million yuan (U.S. $3.26 million) in bribes and of embezzling another 5 million yuan (U.S. $815,000).
State media said Bo "took advantage of his position as a civil servant to seek gains for others ... [and] accepted bribes in the form of large amounts of money and property."
According to the charge sheet, Bo had embezzled a large amount of public money and abused his power, paving the way for a trial that follows the conviction of Bo's wife, Gu Kailai, who received a suspended death sentence for Neil Heywood's murder in August 2012, and the sentencing of Bo's former police chief Wang Lijun to 15 years' imprisonment for corruption and defection last September.
Prominent officials 'connected with the murder'
Ann Heywood called on Beijing's ruling Chinese Communist Party to show "decisiveness and compassion" in its response to the Heywood family.
Neil Heywood's two children, 8 and 12, were "particularly vulnerable" to grief over their father's death and to the financial insecurity that has resulted from the loss of their sole breadwinner, she said.
"My overriding concern has been for the security and well-being of Neil's two children," Heywood said, adding that her son's murder had been part of an official cover-up from the start.
"In the months following Neil's death, it gradually became clear, from media reports and from official Chinese statements, that Neil did not die from natural causes but was murdered," the statement said.
"It also became clear that prominent Chinese officials, including a member of the Communist Party's Politburo and a number of senior policemen, were connected with the murder and involved in a systematic coverup," Heywood said.
'Playing things down'
China's foreign ministry made no comment after being contacted by reporters on Monday.
According to Chinese political analysts, the Party has already shown signs of relaxing its attitude to the once-powerful Bo Xilai, after handing his wife Gu Kailai a suspended death sentence for her role in Heywood's death.
Many familiar with his career say prosecutors have eased off on the severity of the charges against the talented and charismatic Bo, whose case is likely to have topped the agenda at the leadership's political retreat this summer in the Party resort of Beidaihe.
"In the Bo Xilai show, which will shortly play out at the Jinan Intermediate People's Court, they will be playing things down," Jiang Weiping, a Canada-based political analyst and former journalist with the official Xinhua news agency, said in a recent commentary broadcast on RFA's Mandarin Service.
"Bo Xilai only made 20 million yuan in bribes, and embezzled five million? Who made up these seriously shrunken figures?" wrote Jiang, who served six years in prison on charges of revealing state secrets after he wrote articles exposing official corruption, including about Bo's tenure in Dalian.
"He owned three houses in a condo at 518 Changjiang Road in Dalian that were worth five million alone, and why haven't they been counted?"
'Red' bloodline
But Bo's status as the "princeling" son of revolutionary veteran Bo Yibo means that the current administration under fellow "princeling" Xi Jinping is unlikely to come down too hard on his family, analysts said.
"How could they not protect Bo Xilai?" wrote Lin Baohua in a recent commentary broadcast on RFA's Mandarin Service. "He is of a 'red' bloodline."
"They already cut the amount that [former railways minister] Liu Zhijun is said to have made from corruption .... Now they have cut Bo's total by even more."
"Far from leaving no hair unturned, it seems they want everyone to know that the authorities are going to close ranks to protect Bo Xilai," Lin wrote.
Analysts say Bo's carefully controlled trial, which is expected this month, will almost certainly result in a lengthy jail term similar to that handed down in comparable cases in recent years.
Bo had once been widely tipped to rise from his post as Chongqing Party secretary to the all-powerful Standing Committee of the Party's Politburo.
But the flight of his police chief Wang Lijun to the U.S. Consulate in Chengdu on Feb. 6, 2012, signaled that all was not well with Bo's controversial "Chongqing model" of revolutionary ballads and large-scale anti-crime campaigns.
Reported by Zhang An'an for RFA's Mandarin Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.