Updated July 18, 2012,
By JEREMY PAGE
The Wall Street Journal
BEIJING—A French architect embroiled in the scandal surrounding sacked Chinese politician Bo Xilai
has been freed from custody in Cambodia and has flown to China to help
with the investigation into the matter, according to the Cambodian
government
Patrick Henri Devillers' sudden release and return to
China could indicate that Mr. Bo's wife, Gu Kailai, will soon stand
trial over the death of British business consultant Neil Heywood,
according to diplomats following the case.
Mr. Devillers, who is about 52 years old and has been living in the
Cambodian capital Phnom Penh for several years, was detained by police
on June 13 in response to an extradition request from China, according
to Cambodian officials. Late that month, after France urged Cambodia not
to act without a sound legal basis, Cambodian authorities said they
wouldn't extradite the Frenchman but were continuing to investigate him.
Gu Kailai and Patrick Devillers in a tethered balloon over Bournemouth, England, in 2001.
Mr. Devillers flew to Shanghai late on
Tuesday night after Cambodian authorities released him without charge at
the "suggestion" of the Chinese government, Foreign Ministry spokesman
Koy Koung told The Wall Street Journal. Mr. Devillers couldn't be
reached for comment.
"We didn't force him: He honestly agreed to go to China by himself,"
Mr. Koy said, adding that the French Embassy in Phnom Penh was also
involved in the decision. "We arrested and detained him at China's
suggestion and now we're releasing him at China's suggestion."
The Chinese Foreign Ministry didn't immediately respond to a request
for comment. The French Embassy in Phnom Penh declined to comment. It
was not immediately clear where Mr. Devillers is staying in China.
Mr. Devillers and Mr. Heywood were part of a small circle of friends
and advisers around Ms. Gu in the northeastern city of Dalian in the
1990s, when Mr. Bo was mayor, according to several people who knew them
all.
Ms. Gu and Mr. Devillers were both consulting partners for Horas
Consultancy, a company that advised businesses investing in Dalian and
elsewhere in China in the 1990s, according to that firm's publicity
material.
The Frenchman, who was married to a woman from Dalian for several
years, also shared a residential address with Ms. Gu in the southern
British city of Bournemouth between 2000 and 2003, according to British
public records.
The Chongqing Drama
The mysterious death of Neil Heywood in the Chinese
city of Chongqing last year is emerging as a key element in the drama
surrounding Bo Xilai.
Several people who knew both people have said
that they saw them together in Bournemouth, and that they appeared to
be living together.
Ms. Gu, using the name Horus Kai, and Mr. Devillers are also both
listed as directors of a company called Adad Ltd. that was set up in the
town of Poole—near Bournemouth—in 2000 and dissolved in 2003, according
to the British public records.
China hasn't given any official update on Ms. Gu's case since
announcing in April that she had been detained as a murder suspect in
the death of Mr. Heywood, and that the case had been handed to judicial
authorities. She has not been reachable for comment since her detention.
The Chinese government announced at the same time that Mr. Bo had
been sacked from his remaining Party posts and was also under
investigation for unspecified "serious disciplinary violations."
—Sun Narin in Phnom Penh contributed to this article.
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