HEFEI, China, Aug. 8 (UPI) -- Bo Guagua said he has submitted a witness statement to the legal team defending his mother, who is accused in the death of a British businessman in China.
The son of ousted Chinese Communist leader Bo Xilai, Bo Guagua did not specify what he wrote in the statement, but said of his mother's trial, to begin in Hefei, China, Thursday, "I have faith that facts will speak for themselves."
Authorities say he and this mother, Gu Kailai, had arguments with businessman Neil Heywood over what were termed "economic interests," and that Gu and accomplice Zhang Xiaojun poisoned Heywood out of concern for the son's personal safety.
Heywood was found dead in Nov. 2011 in his hotel room in the city of Chongqing. Authorities blamed alcohol poisoning as the cause of death, but it was announced April 10 that Gu and Zhang were being investigated for suspicion of murder, CNN reported Wednesday.
Bo Xilai once was seen as a top contender for China's Politburo Standing Committee, but was stripped of his seat on the Communist Party's Central Committee for an unnamed "serious breach of regulations," CNN said.
