China executes Briton over drugs; Brown slams decision
Leroy N. Soetoro
802639.html?hpid=moreheadlines
URUMQI, China (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he
was "appalled" after China on Tuesday executed a British citizen caught
smuggling heroin, dismissing pleas from the prisoner's family that he
was mentally unsound.
Akmal Shaikh's relatives and the British government had appealed for
clemency, arguing the former businessman suffered from bipolar disorder,
also called manic depression.
The Chinese supreme court rejected the appeal saying there was
insufficient grounds, and the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Shaikh had
been given all due legal rights.
Brown condemned the execution in strong words that may raise diplomatic
temperatures over the case.
"I condemn the execution of Akmal Shaikh in the strongest terms, and am
appalled and disappointed that our persistent requests for clemency have
not been granted," he said in a statement issued by the British Foreign
Office.
"I am particularly concerned that no mental health assessment was
undertaken."
China had yet to publicly confirm Shaikh had been executed in the
western city of Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang region, at the time Brown
made the statement. In London, a British Foreign Office spokesman said
Britain had been informed by Chinese authorities of Shaikh's execution.
He would be the first European citizen to be executed in China since
1951, Western rights groups say.
Shaikh was still "hopeful" when relatives met him in Urumqi this
weekend, his cousin Soohail Shaikh told reporters at Beijing airport
late on Monday night.
"We beg the Chinese authorities for mercy and clemency to help reunite
the heartbroken family," Soohail Shaikh had said.
Brown last week asked China not to execute Shaikh, who was born in
Pakistan and moved to Britain as a boy.
The case could harden public opinion in Britain against China. It could
also rile Chinese public opinion, resentful over what Beijing often
calls "interference" in the country's internal affairs.
The two countries recently traded accusations over the troubled
Copenhagen climate change negotiations.
Heroin use is a major problem in Xinjiang, which borders Central Asia.
The region was convulsed by ethnic violence and protests in July, with
further protests in September after widespread panic over alleged
syringe attacks.
All executions in the city have used lethal injections in recent years,
an official surnamed Jia told reporters at the detention center in
Urumqi where Shaikh had been held.
Shaikh's defenders, including British rights group Reprieve which
lobbies against the death penalty, say he was tricked into smuggling the
heroin by a gang who promised to make him a pop star. Arrested in 2007,
a Chinese court rejected his final appeal on December 21.
Reprieve posted on the Internet a recording Shaikh made of a song, "Come
Little Rabbit," which it described as "dreadful" but which Shaikh
believed would be an international hit and help bring about world peace.
"This is not about how much we hate the drug trade. Britain as well as
China are completely committed to take it on," the British Foreign
Secretary, David Miliband, said in a statement emailed to reporters.
"The issue is whether Mr. Shaikh has become an additional victim of it."
--
Nancy Pelosi, Democrat criminal, accessory before and after the fact, to
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles B. Rangel of New York's
million dollar tax evasion. Charles B. Rangel is still under
"investigation" by a "closed door" House Ethics Committee.
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A B
I'm glad to hear that our Government have had the backbone to say what they
think of this. Incidentally, I'm pretty sure that the Chinese authorities
had Mr. Shaikh in a secure mental hospital before he was killed. Strange
thing to do with someone you really believe isn't mentally ill.
A. B.