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British man executed in drug case
As the article states, the method is unknown.
09:31 AM CST on Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Ng Han Guan, The Associated Press
BEIJING – Britain says China has executed a Briton convicted of drug smuggling after rejecting a string of appeals from the British government and relatives who say the man was mentally unstable and unwittingly lured into the crime.
The British Foreign Office issued a statement today condemning the execution of 53-year-old Akmal Shaikh.
He was the first European citizen executed in China in half a century.
Shaikh first learned on Monday when his death sentence would be carried out from his visiting cousins, who made a last-minute plea for his life.
They say he was mentally unstable and was lured to China from a life on the street in Poland by men playing on his dreams of recording a pop song for world peace.
"I believe we have done everything we possibly can," said Ivan Lewis, a Foreign Office minister, after meeting with the Chinese ambassador in London late Monday before the execution. "We urge at this very late stage the Chinese government to do the right thing."
Prime Minister Gordon Brown had spoken personally to China's prime minister about his case.
Shaikh was arrested in 2007 for carrying a suitcase with almost 9 pounds of heroin into China on a flight from Tajikistan.
He told Chinese officials he didn't know about the drugs and the suitcase wasn't his, according to Reprieve, a London-based prisoner advocacy that is helping with his case.
He was convicted in 2008 after a half-hour trial. In one court appearance during his trial and appeal process, the judges reportedly laughed at his rambling remarks.
The official Xinhua News Agency reported today that China's Supreme People's Court had approved the death sentence, but it did not give any details.
Shaikh's cousin Nasir Shaikh had reiterated the family's plea to China to stay the execution, citing concerns about his cousin's mental health.
Nasir said Akhmal asked him during a prison visit Monday whether he had been mentioned by Britain's Queen Elizabeth in her Christmas Day speech.
"These do not seem like the kind of ramblings of a sane person fit to stand trial and ultimately receive a death sentence," said Nasir Shaikh.
"With maximum respect for the People's Republic of China and for its laws and for its law institutions and its people, we make the submission that Akhmal be urgently granted a professional medical assessment before it is too late."
Last-minute appeals are almost never granted in China, which executes more people each year than all other countries combined.
"Drug smuggling is a grave crime. The rights of the defendant have been fully guaranteed," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said last week.
It was not known how Shaikh, who is of Pakistani descent, was executed. China is increasingly doing so by injection, although some death sentences are still carried out by a shot to the head.
The cousins were given a bag of Shaikh's belongings Monday.
Britain has accused Chinese officials of not taking Shaikh's mental health concerns into account, with a proper psychiatric evaluation, as required by law.
"The prime minister has intervened personally on a number of occasions: He has raised the case with Premier Wen [Jiabao], most recently at the Copenhagen summit and has written several times to President Hu [Jintao]," said an e-mail from the British government.
Ng Han Guan,
The Associated Press
Ng Han Guan, The Associated Press
BEIJING – Britain says China has executed a Briton convicted of drug smuggling after rejecting a string of appeals from the British government and relatives who say the man was mentally unstable and unwittingly lured into the crime.
The British Foreign Office issued a statement today condemning the execution of 53-year-old Akmal Shaikh.
He was the first European citizen executed in China in half a century.
Shaikh first learned on Monday when his death sentence would be carried out from his visiting cousins, who made a last-minute plea for his life.
They say he was mentally unstable and was lured to China from a life on the street in Poland by men playing on his dreams of recording a pop song for world peace.
"I believe we have done everything we possibly can," said Ivan Lewis, a Foreign Office minister, after meeting with the Chinese ambassador in London late Monday before the execution. "We urge at this very late stage the Chinese government to do the right thing."
Prime Minister Gordon Brown had spoken personally to China's prime minister about his case.
Shaikh was arrested in 2007 for carrying a suitcase with almost 9 pounds of heroin into China on a flight from Tajikistan.
He told Chinese officials he didn't know about the drugs and the suitcase wasn't his, according to Reprieve, a London-based prisoner advocacy that is helping with his case.
He was convicted in 2008 after a half-hour trial. In one court appearance during his trial and appeal process, the judges reportedly laughed at his rambling remarks.
The official Xinhua News Agency reported today that China's Supreme People's Court had approved the death sentence, but it did not give any details.
Shaikh's cousin Nasir Shaikh had reiterated the family's plea to China to stay the execution, citing concerns about his cousin's mental health.
Nasir said Akhmal asked him during a prison visit Monday whether he had been mentioned by Britain's Queen Elizabeth in her Christmas Day speech.
"These do not seem like the kind of ramblings of a sane person fit to stand trial and ultimately receive a death sentence," said Nasir Shaikh.
"With maximum respect for the People's Republic of China and for its laws and for its law institutions and its people, we make the submission that Akhmal be urgently granted a professional medical assessment before it is too late."
Last-minute appeals are almost never granted in China, which executes more people each year than all other countries combined.
"Drug smuggling is a grave crime. The rights of the defendant have been fully guaranteed," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said last week.
It was not known how Shaikh, who is of Pakistani descent, was executed. China is increasingly doing so by injection, although some death sentences are still carried out by a shot to the head.
The cousins were given a bag of Shaikh's belongings Monday.
Britain has accused Chinese officials of not taking Shaikh's mental health concerns into account, with a proper psychiatric evaluation, as required by law.
"The prime minister has intervened personally on a number of occasions: He has raised the case with Premier Wen [Jiabao], most recently at the Copenhagen summit and has written several times to President Hu [Jintao]," said an e-mail from the British government.
Ng Han Guan,
The Associated Press
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