During the trial, Gu did not enter a plea to the murder charge and only a day later, after the hearing had ended, did she issue a confession -- through official news agency Xinhua. In it, according to Xinhua, she said she had suffered a mental breakdown and killed Heywood because he had made a threat against her son, Guagua, over the failed business deal.
"During those days last November, I suffered a mental breakdown after learning that my son was in jeopardy," Xinhua quoted Gu as saying in the confession.
LONG FALL FROM GRACE
Bo's career came to a crashing halt after Wang Lijun, the top policeman in his power base, the city of Chongqing, fled to the nearest American consulate in February with the claim that Bo had covered up Heywood's murder. Heywood was believed to have been poisoned in a hotel in Chongqing in November.
Within weeks of the allegations emerging, Bo, 63, was ousted from the elite Politburo, sacked from his post as party chief in Chongqing and placed in custody. Gu and Zhang were charged.
It has been a long fall from grace for Gu, one of modern China's first law graduates and the daughter of a famous general. She once wrote about her success defending Chinese companies in an American court.
Gu had become depressed and isolated as her charismatic husband campaigned for a spot in the new generation of party leadership that takes over this fall, sources who knew her said.
Other family sources say she also suffers from cancer.
None of the reports could be verified.
GILDED CAGE
Despite enjoying great privilege, Gu lost her professional identity as her husband's political career flourished. In China, most wives of high-ranking cadres fade discreetly into the background and many high-ranking women are unmarried.
Bo and Gu met in the early 1980s and were married in 1986, news reports have said. Bo, who was divorced at the time, has a son from his first marriage.
Bo, Gu and Guagua, the couple's only child, were unusual in seeking the spotlight. Her much-photographed short, chic haircut contrasted with the frumpy look favored by most leaders' wives.
When Bo governed the port city Dalian in the 1990s, Gu ran a law firm and consultancy. Journalist Jiang Weiping, later imprisoned for documenting corruption in Bo's circle, claims her firms channeled bribes from Taiwanese and foreign investors.
She went by the English name "Horus", referring to the falcon-headed Egyptian god of war, and depicted herself as a fearless attorney in her book, "Uphold Justice in America".
She stopped work to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest with Bo, whose political star was rising, but the decision appeared to have taken a toll on her.
"Ever since she stepped down, she lives like a hermit and doesn't attend any social events. When dad wants her to come to events, she won't," Bo Guagua said in a 2009 interview with the Chengdu Evening News, later expunged from its website.
"I can understand, she is most unwilling to exist in dad's shadow, and lose herself. Right now she reads all day and studies comparative literature."
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