The wife of a disgraced top Chinese politician was a depressed woman on medication but a willful murderer who poisoned a British businessman while in fear for her son's life, official media said Friday in what appeared to be a prelude to her conviction and punishment after a seven-hour trial.

The official Xinhua News Agency _ in a 3,400-word report that was its most detailed accounting of the scandal that has shaken the country's leadership _ said Gu Kailai and her co-defendant ``confessed to intentional murder'' in the death of her business associate Neil Heywood last November.

It said evidence showed she used cyanide to poison him in a Chongqing hotel room but also describes her as depressed and fearful that Heywood would harm her family _ factors that may bring leniency in her sentence.

Gu's arrest and the ouster of her husband Bo Xilai, the Communist Party boss of Chongqing until March, sparked the biggest political turbulence in China since the putdown of the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989. Her tightly orchestrated trial was a step toward resolving the scandal before the party's once-a-decade leadership transition this fall.

The court in Hefei in eastern China's Anhui province that heard her speedy trial on Thursday said a verdict against Gu and the family aide accused as an accomplice would be delivered later. Their trial was followed Friday by the trial of four senior Chongqing police officers accused of helping Gu cover up the crime.

Xinhua said Gu accepted all the facts in the indictment and was ready to accept her punishment, saying: ``The tragedy which was created by me was not only extended to Neil, but also to several families.''

Gu said Heywood wrote a letter of self-introduction in about 2005 when her son Bo Guagua was studying in Britain. They then got involved in a land project that never got off the ground. According to Xinhua, she said Heywood later got into a dispute with her and her son over payment and other issues and she ``believed Heywood had threatened the personal safety of her son and decided to kill Heywood.''

It said that according to testimony that prosecutors presented in court, Gu said: ``To me, that was more than a threat. It was real action that was taking place. I must fight to my death to stop the craziness of Neil Heywood.''

The report did not detail any alleged threats or say why the murder then took place seven years later when Bo Guagua was a graduate student at Harvard. The court was presented with emails between him and Heywood showing how their dispute escalated, Xinhua said, without detailing the contents.

Xinhua said that family aide Zhang Xiaojun had also confessed and said ``sorry'' to the relatives of Heywood.

A guilty verdict is all but assured against Gu and Zhang and carries the potential punishment of 10 years in prison up to a death sentence.

Heywood's mother, Ann, has said previously said she would not be making any statement about the case.

In a brief interview outside her London house earlier this week, Ann Heywood accused journalists of spreading lies about her late son and said that she was cutting off all contact with the media in order to protect his two young children.

Two letters left at the home have gone unreturned.

The report said Gu, 53, has been treated for chronic insomnia, anxiety and depression and paranoia in the past, and had unsuccessfully used various drugs to overcome those problems, and that she had ``developed a certain degree of physical and psychological dependence on sedative hypnotic drugs, which resulted in mental disorders.''

But it said Gu ``had a clear goal and a practical motive in committing the alleged crime,'' shown by the preparations prior to Heywood's death, such as arranging the poison and location in an isolated hotel.

That meant, Xinhua said, that although she had ``a weakened ability to control herself,'' Gu knew the consequences of the alleged crime and therefore ``she should be identified as having the capacity to accept full criminal responsibility.''

Xinhua quoted Gu as saying ``the case has produced great losses to the Party and the country, for which I ought to shoulder the responsibility'' and that she was grateful to the humanitarian care shown to her by those who handled the case.

``I solemnly tell the court that in order to maintain the dignity of the law, I will accept and calmly face any sentence and I also expect a fair and just court decision,'' she said. (AP)

<관련 한글 기사>

거물정치가의 부인, 살인 고백해



중국 보시라이(薄熙來) 전 충칭시 당서기의 부인 구카이라이(谷開來)는 9일 재판에서 범행 당시 아들 보과과가 살해 협박을 받고 있다는 소식에 제정신이 아니었다고 토로했다.

10일 신화통신에 따르면 구카이라이는 영국인 사업가 닐 헤이우드를 살해한 혐의를 인정한 데 이어 " 헤이우드가 보과과의 신변을 위협하고 있다는 사실을 전해 듣고 멘탈 붕괴(mental breakdown•신경쇠약)를 겪었다"고 주장했다.

재판부가 구카이라이의 병원기록을 조회한 결과 그가 과거 만성 불면증과 우울증, 편집증 등으로 치료를 받은 것은 사실이며, 최근까지 상당한 양의 항우울제를 복용해온 것으로 확인됐다.

이와 함께 구카이라이의 국선변호인은 헤이우드가 살해되기 3일전 보과과에 보낸 이메일의 전문을 증거로 제출했다고 미국 워싱턴포스트(WP)가 당시 재판에 참석했던 한 익명의 소식통을 인용해 9일 전했다. 이메일의 진위는 밝혀지지 않았다.

이 이메일에 따르면 헤이우드는 보과과가 추천한 부동산개발사업 투자가 실패로 돌아가자 보과과에게 약속된 수익의 10%인 1천300만파운드(약 230억원)를 내놓으 라고 요구했다. 또 돈을 보내지 않으면 "널 파멸시킬 것"이라고 보과과를 협박했다.

한편 이메일을 사용하지 않는 구카이라이에게 이 소식을 전한 것은 이번 사건의 공범으로 지목된 집사 장샤오쥔(張曉軍)이었다.

이메일을 확인한 구카이라이는 장샤오쥔에게 헤이우드를 충칭시로 데려오라 지시했고, 지난해 11월 13일 두 사람은 이곳의 한 호텔방에서 단둘이 만나 술을 마셨다.

헤이우드가 독한 위스키로 만취해 몸을 가누지 못하는 상태가 되자 구카이라이는 미리 준비한 독약과 함께 대기 중이던 장샤오쥔을 방으로 불러들였다. 잠시 후 구토를 거듭하던 헤이우드가 마실 물을 달라고 요청하자 장이 헤이우드를 침대에 눕 혔고, 구카이라이는 헤이우드의 입에 독약을 섞은 물을 들이붓고 나서 방을 떠났다고 자백했다. 구카이라이에 대한 선고는 보류된 상태다. 탕이간(唐義干) 법원 대변인은 판결이 언제 나올지는 말할 수 없다면서 구카이라이가 조사에 협력한 점이 참작될 것이라고 밝혔다.