Chinese police are investigating a local official devoted to the family of Bo Xilai, the purged Chongqing Communist party secretary, for allegedly helping to organise and cover up the murder of Neil Heywood, the British businessman who died after his close ties with the Bo family turned sour.
Mr Heywood was poisoned at the Nanshan Lijing Holiday Hotel, a state-owned resort in the hills overlooking Chongqing.
Xia Zeliang, Communist party secretary of Chongqing’s Nan’an district where the hotel is located, allegedly provided the poison and used security personnel from his district to secure the area the night Mr Heywood died, officials and sources familiar with the investigation said.