Re: Respect law
RichAsianKid
> Respect law
>
> 2009-12-29
>
> China's legal experts yesterday urged foreigners to respect Chinese
> law and advised Western media to refrain from politicizing the issue
> of capital punishment in the case of a Briton convicted for smuggling
> drugs into China.
>
> The UK media quoted a British Foreign Office spokesperson as saying
> that the 53-year-old drug trafficker, Akmal Shaikh, would be executed
> today.
>
> "It is not a question whether the Chinese government is lenient or
> not, it is about China's legal system," Huang Feng, a leading
> international criminal law professor at Beijing Normal University,
> said yesterday.
>
> Shaikh was convicted in 2008 of carrying a suitcase containing almost
> 4 kg of heroin to Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang Uygur autonomous
> region.
>
> He was sentenced to death on Oct 29 last year by the No 1 Intermediate
> People's Court of Urumqi.
>
> China's Supreme People's Court had earlier this month rejected
> Shaikh's appeal.
>
> If the execution goes as planned, Shaikh will become the first
> European citizen to be executed in China in half a century, AP
> reported yesterday.
>
> Shaikh's relatives yesterday made a last-minute visit to Urumqi
> pleading for mercy.
>
> "We beg the Chinese authorities for mercy and clemency to help reunite
> this heartbroken family," his cousin, Soohail Shaikh, said in a
> statement faxed to China Daily yesterday.
>
> Huang, however, said only the Standing Committee of the National
> People's Congress, the country's top legislature, had that
> prerogative, and that could be decided only when the law making body
> met.
>
> Huang also said Western media outlets, which have always criticized
> China for "lacking judicial independence", should not politicize the
> case.
>
> Under Article 347 of China's Criminal Law, anyone found guilty of
> smuggling, trafficking, or transporting more than 50 g of heroin or
> other drugs will be put to death. Shaikh had brought in 80 times that
> amount.
>
> The smuggler's case has attracted significant international media
> interest, especially in the UK.
>
> Although no organization in the UK has publicly supported the
> execution, message boards on some media websites are full of opinion
> supporting China's position.
>
> A Timesonline reader named John Sewell wrote in a post on the website:
> "The man (Akmal Shaikh) got caught with 4 kg of human misery, how many
> peoples' lives would he have ruined if he had not been caught, he is
> not a victim but a drug smuggler."
>
> The British embassy in Beijing strongly opposed the death sentence and
> made strong representations to the Chinese Foreign Ministry citing the
> drug trafficker's alleged "mental illness", The Guardian reported.
>
> In mid-October, Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu refuted
> allegations that the Chinese court refused to take Shaikh's mental
> condition into consideration. Ma said there was insufficient evidence
> to show he had suffered from a mental health problem.
>
> "The court hired interpreters for him," said Ma. "Both the defendant
> and his lawyer participated fully in defending his rights."
>
> Related readings:
> UK man's case followed law: Official
> In line with Chinese law
> Top court eyeing Briton's smuggling death penalty
> Death penalty on British drug dealer in line with Chinese law
>
> "Besides, Shaikh also said that neither he nor his family had any
> record of mental illness," Ma added.
> Ma Kechang, a professor of criminal law at Wuhan University, said:
> "Since the Supreme People's Court had ordered a mental health check on
> him and proved that his mental situation could not exempt him from
> being punished, his relatives have no reason to ask for another test."
>
> "But, even if the authority had not done it thinking there was no need
> to do so, the decision holds water and should not be interfered with,"
> he said.
>
> Although some British media outlets are emotionally playing up Akmal's
> role as a father of three children, and alleging that the Chinese
> authorities are not being "lenient" enough, many Chinese netizens have
> expressed support for the verdict.
>
> A Guangdong netizen said on Sina.com, a popular website in China: "The
> British guys should not despise Chinese law. Their lives are not more
> precious than Chinese. If you committed a crime that leads to the
> death penalty in China, why should you be exempt from the punishment?"
>
> Another netizen, named Lian, said: "His family members could not lose
> him. If so, how about those Chinese families who are hurt by drugs and
> lose their sons or daughters?"
>
> Mark Hughes and Cui Jia contributed to the story.
>
> http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2009-12/29/content_9239307.htm
Also don't forget this whole bit on mental illness: it's all about
definitional play. Define it away and somehow anything can be forgiven.
Homosexuality was defined by DSM-II up till 1973. Yet it is now so
'normal' or even celebrated now as diversity. Or think ADD: why do you
have failed kids wearing this proud badge of 'attention deficit
disorder' and hence need special attention, so sacredly exonerated from
their own incompetence? They're deserving *precisely* because they're
abnormal, a.k.a. "special" etc etc.
(We seldom hear people afflicted by 'urban survival syndrome'
though....you know, fleeing from places where you don't want some
dark-skinned neighbor hahahahahaaa, but then that'd be....of
course....defined as...."bigotry". ;) )
No, this "Akmal Shaikh" deserves so very much drummed-up humanistic pity.
And precisely for that reason China did the right thing.
Penang
Don't forget one thing, RAK ... that Akmal Shaikh guy is a "minority",
a dark skin Muslim !
That makes him so even more precious !!!!!!!!!!!!!
To think U.K. has sunk so low, that they would fight China over a
convicted drug smuggler who happen to be an Islamic nut.
Jakub A. Krzewicki
<kala...@gmail.com> contaminated soc.culture.china with the following
letter:
> Don't forget one thing, RAK ... that Akmal Shaikh guy is a "minority",
> a dark skin Muslim !
>
> That makes him so even more precious !!!!!!!!!!!!!
>
> To think U.K. has sunk so low, that they would fight China over a
> convicted drug smuggler who happen to be an Islamic nut.
They wouldn't care a broken penny if a convict was e.g. a white-skinned,
blond-haired and blue-eyed Vajrayana Buddhist.
--
tois egregorosin hena kai koinon kosmon einai
ton de koimomenon hekaston eis idion apostrephesthai
Jakub A. Krzewicki
<kala...@gmail.com> contaminated soc.culture.china with the following
letter:
> Don't forget one thing, RAK ... that Akmal Shaikh guy is a "minority",
> a dark skin Muslim !
>
> That makes him so even more precious !!!!!!!!!!!!!
>
> To think U.K. has sunk so low, that they would fight China over a
> convicted drug smuggler who happen to be an Islamic nut.
They wouldn't care a broken penny if the convict was e.g. a white-skinned,