briton faces execution in china on drugs charg

Briton faces execution in China on drugs charges
AFP
December 29, 2009, 8:12 am


BEIJING (AFP) - A British man with reported mental health problems on Tuesday faced execution in China for drug smuggling, following last-minute pleas for mercy from his family and the government in London.

The case of Akmal Shaikh, a 53-year-old father-of-three who supporters say suffers from bipolar disorder, has sparked protests from rights activists who say his illness should have been a mitigating factor in his sentencing.

But China -- its judicial system already under fire in the West over the jailing last week of a top dissident for 11 years on subversion charges -- insists it handled Shaikh's case fairly, and that his rights were protected.

If the death penalty is carried out, Shaikh would become the first national from a European Union country to be executed in China in 50 years, according to the London-based charity Reprieve, which is providing him with legal counsel.

"He was not aware of what is happening and he was hoping for a pardon," Shaikh's cousin Soohail told AFP on Monday after visiting the inmate along with another cousin, and telling him of his fate.

"We are still hoping that on some compassionate grounds, we might get a final reprieve or a change of decision," Soohail said.

But Shaikh's daughter Leilla Horsnell, sounded a more pessimistic note, telling BBC radio: "I'd like to be hopeful, but time just seems to be running out."

Shaikh, from London, was arrested in September 2007 in Urumqi, the capital of China's far western Xinjiang region, with four kilogrammes (8.8 pounds) of heroin. Campaigners say a criminal gang duped him into carrying the drugs.

He was sentenced to death in December last year and lost his final appeal earlier this month in China's Supreme Court, officials say.

Britain opposes the death penalty and Prime Minister Gordon Brown has repeatedly raised Shaikh's case with China's leaders and appealed for clemency.

London late Monday urged China to "do the right thing" in a last-minute appeal to halt the execution.

"Even at this late stage I hope they will see that in a modern world it is not appropriate to put a man with mental illness to death," Foreign Office minister Ivan Lewis said.

A Downing Street spokesman earlier said: "At every level -- including at ministerial level today, in a phone call from... Ivan Lewis to his Chinese counterpart -- the Government has raised its concerns, made clear our opposition to the death penalty, and requested a full mental health assessment. We will remain engaged in the coming hours."

Last week, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said Shaikh's case has been handled "in accordance with the law" and that his rights were "fully respected and guaranteed".

Reprieve -- which said the execution would take place at 10:30 am (0230 GMT) Tuesday -- says it has medical evidence that Shaikh suffered from a delusion he was going to China to record a hit single that would usher in world peace.

The charity said early Tuesday new witnesses had emerged and their accounts backed up the defence claim that he was mentally ill.

Two British men, Paul Newberry and Gareth Saunders, both quoted by Reprieve, said they had helped him record a song in Poland and it was clear that he was mentally disturbed.

Newberry, a British national who lives in Poland, said in a statement issued by the charity: "As I was British and was with a British friend, Akmal latched on to us. Immediately it was clear that he was mentally ill, although he was a very likeable person, friendly and very open.

"However, he was clearly suffering from delusions and it seemed to me he was a particularly severe case of manic depressive."

The family has asked that "a full mental health evaluation be conducted to assess the impact of his mental illness" on his actions.

According to the London-based rights group Amnesty International, China executes more people every year than the rest of the world combined, but the actual numbers put to death remain a state secret.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/mp/6627737/briton-faces-execution-in-china-on-drugs-charges/


If he truly has mental health issues then I hope that the can stop this happening.