Post by snitsky1214 on Dec 29, 2009 1:12:38 GMT -5
(CNN) -- China on Tuesday executed a British man convicted of drug smuggling, who was reportedly mentally unstable, Britain's Foreign Office has confirmed.
The British government condemned the execution.
"I ... am appalled and disappointed that our persistent requests for clemency have not been granted," Prime Minister Gordon Brown said. "I am particularly concerned that no mental health assessment was undertaken."
Akmal Shaikh was convicted of carrying up to 4 kilograms (8.8 pounds) of heroin at the Urumqi Airport in September 2007. China says he received due process under its laws, and he exhausted his appeals last week. The 53-year-old is the first European executed in China in 50 years, according to the British legal group Reprieve.
Video: Relatives seek mercy
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His family and the British government had asked Chinese leaders for clemency. His supporters argued that Shaikh was mentally ill, and that Chinese officials did not take his mental condition into account when trying him. Shaikh's advocates say he suffered from a bipolar disorder and that he was tricked into carrying heroin into China with promises of a career as a pop singer.
Brown raised Shaikh's case with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao during the international climate summit in Denmark earlier this month.
Ahead of the execution, Philip Alston, the U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, said it would be a "major step backwards for China" to execute a mentally ill man.
"Both Chinese and international law clearly indicate that a person who committed a crime while suffering from significant mental illness should not be subjected to the death penalty," Alston said in a statement released by Reprieve.
www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/12/28/china.britain.smuggler/index.html?eref=igoogle_cnn
The British government condemned the execution.
"I ... am appalled and disappointed that our persistent requests for clemency have not been granted," Prime Minister Gordon Brown said. "I am particularly concerned that no mental health assessment was undertaken."
Akmal Shaikh was convicted of carrying up to 4 kilograms (8.8 pounds) of heroin at the Urumqi Airport in September 2007. China says he received due process under its laws, and he exhausted his appeals last week. The 53-year-old is the first European executed in China in 50 years, according to the British legal group Reprieve.
Video: Relatives seek mercy
RELATED TOPICS
China
His family and the British government had asked Chinese leaders for clemency. His supporters argued that Shaikh was mentally ill, and that Chinese officials did not take his mental condition into account when trying him. Shaikh's advocates say he suffered from a bipolar disorder and that he was tricked into carrying heroin into China with promises of a career as a pop singer.
Brown raised Shaikh's case with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao during the international climate summit in Denmark earlier this month.
Ahead of the execution, Philip Alston, the U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, said it would be a "major step backwards for China" to execute a mentally ill man.
"Both Chinese and international law clearly indicate that a person who committed a crime while suffering from significant mental illness should not be subjected to the death penalty," Alston said in a statement released by Reprieve.
www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/12/28/china.britain.smuggler/index.html?eref=igoogle_cnn
