China executes British citizen for drug smuggling

http://www.timesofearth.com/Worldnews/?NT=0&nid=15188 - Shaikh is the first EU national to be executed in China in more than 50 years.




BEIJING, CHINA - China has executed a British man, said by his relatives to be mentally ill, after he was convicted of drug smuggling.
The execution of Akmal Shaikh by lethal injection on Tuesday morning followed last minute appeals for clemency from his family and senior UK officials.

Gordon Brown, the UK prime minister, criticised Beijing's move, saying that he was "appalled and disappointed that our persistent requests for clemency have not been granted".

In a statement following confirmation that the sentence had been carried out, Brown condemned the execution "in the strongest terms".

"I am particularly concerned that no mental health assessment was undertaken," the prime minister's statement said.

Shaikh was arrested in 2007 after he was found carrying a suitcase containing 4kg of heroin.

His family have said that he was tricked into carrying the suitcase by a gang in Poland, where he had been living for at least six years.
"He [Shaikh] was caught with about eighty times the amount of minimum heroin required for a death penalty in this country.

"From the Chinese point of view, that is what they're focusing on, not the possible mental condition of the defendant."

A report on the court ruling by Xinhua, the Chinese official news agency, said that "the criminal regulations of our nation are implemented for all crimes equally and in accordance with appropriate laws".

"Therefore, crimes are dealt with equally before the law no matter what nationality." it said.

Seema Khan, Shaikh's cousin, told AFP news agency: "He [Shaikh] has been assessed in the UK as suffering from bipolar disorder. And the evidence shows that he is displaying the symptoms of this disease."

But China's supreme court ruled that there was "insufficient" proof that Shaikh was mentally ill, Xinhua reported.

Dr Peter Schaapveld, a clinical psychologist, said he had travelled to China to try to assess Shakih's mental health but had been denied access to him by Chinese officials.

"They had ample evidence from myself, from Reprieve - the legal charity - and [from] the foreign and commonwealth office [the British foreign ministry] in the UK, that Mr Shaikh was suffering from a mental illness and had been for sometime," he said.

Schaapveld said he was "simply refused" access to Shaikh.

"I was given what looked like a couple of what appeared like excuses on the spur of the moment," he said.

"My knowledge is that no one has seen him and this is despite the fact that in China they do have a flourishing and very professional psychiatric profession."

Roseann Rife, the deputy programme director for the Asia Pacific at rights group Amnesty International, which has campaigned against the death penalty, said China needed to release details of its legal proceedings in such cases.

"The danger here is that we don't know exactly what evidence the supreme court looked at in coming to this conclusion [to execute Shaikh]," she told AFP news agency.

"Because the application of the death penalty is considered a state secret in China, all of this remains behind closed doors. There's no transparency."

She also called for China to release figures on the number of people it executes.

Shakih had reportedly been unaware that his execution date had been set until he was told by his cousins, who visited him in Urumqi, the capital of China's western Xinjiang province, on Monday.

Shaikh, a father of three, who was born in Pakistan but was raised in the UK, is the first European Union citizen to be put to death in China since 1951.


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Category:

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Tags:

• China
• Executes
• Briton
• After
• Rejecting
• Appeals

[yufei1983]

Bring drugs 2 china...bad move... fake mental illness is even worse. no excuse what so ever. U think u lucky? punk?

[Raylufc]

this guy dont look or sound british to me

[XMasterDragon]

What a retard smuggling drugs in a foreign country makes you look stupid.

[TheUfchink]

This baboo should get executed on the grounds of being a hindoo currymuncher

[choongification]

WOW you guys are fucked. England belongs to white people, but the world belongs to everyone else. You can expect to go to every country in the world, completely fuck it over, and not expect the same with your own? I love whats happening to Britain

[MrChowTheTroll]

@TheSFCRetired That because no one smuggled drugs there

[LYinKansas]

they got their wambi on

[bubumarms]

Good

[jia2001]

You DONT mess with the CHINESE GOVERNMENT this British guy is a example of what happens if you fuck with CHINA!

[anhtransport]

@yufei1983 am no white but every man deserves a fair trial, and needs to be proven guilty beyond any reasonable doubt...its something you uneducated apes or monkey will never understand!!!

[anhtransport]

@Ferior am no white but every man deserves a fair trial, and needs to be proven guilty beyond any reasonable doubt...its something you uneducated barbaric apes will never understand!!!

[anhtransport]

China and their blatant disregard for human rights...is old news to me. !!!