Gordon Brown leads furious outcry as China executes British drugs mule by lethal injection

Executed: Akmal Shaikh was put to death this morning after being convicted of heroin smuggling

(left).Soohail Shaikh, left, and Nasir Shaikh, cousins of Akmal Shaikh, pictured together this morning in a street in Urumqi where the Briton was held

Supporters of British national Akmal Shaikh hold a vigil at the Chinese Embassy in London

Anger: Gordon Brown attacked Mr Shaikh's execution in the 'strongest' terms

Death prison: Shaikh was held and executed at Xishan detention centre in western China's Urumqi province

Father-of-three Mr Shaikh was arrested in Urumqi in September 2007 and charged with smuggling almost 9lbs of heroin

Gordon Brown today led condemnation of China for executing a mentally ill British man who had been convicted of drug smuggling.

Akmal Shaikh, 53, was put to death by lethal injection just after 4am at Xishan detention centre in the western Urumqi province.

The father-of-five was buried immediately. He was the first European citizen to be put to death in China for 50 years.

In a statement shortly after Mr Shaikh's death, the prime minister said he condemned the exeuction 'in the strongest terms'.

He said he was 'appalled and disappointed' that persistent requests for clemency have not been granted.

'I am particularly concerned that no mental health assessment was undertaken,' he said.

'At this time our thoughts are with Mr Shaikh's family and friends and I send them our sincere condolences.'

David Cameron has also attacked the execution, saying he found the decision deplorable.

The British government has made 27 representations to the Chinese authorities about Mr Shaikh's case in the past two years.

A last ditch appeal from Foreign Office minister Ivan Lewis also fell on deaf ears.

Beijing, however, remained defiant.

Spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry Jiang Yu said Britain's robust response risked souring diplomatic relations.

'No one has the right to to comment on China's judicial sovereignty,' she said.

'It is the common wish of people around the world to strike against the crime of drug trafficking.

'We express our strong dissatisfaction and opposition to the British Government's unreasonable criticism of the case.

'We urge the British to correct their mistake in order to avoid harming China-UK relations.'
The Chinese embassy in London said Mr Shaikh had 'no previous medical record' of mental illness and that his rights and interests had been properly respected.

In a statement, officials said the Briton had been convicted of 'serious' drug trafficking, adding: 'The amount of heroin he brought into China was 4,030g, enough to cause 26,800 deaths, threatening numerous families.'
Mr Shaikh, from Kentish Town, North London, was arrested in September 2007 and convicted of trying to smuggle 9lb of heroin, worth £250,000, into the remote western Chinese city of Urumqi, 2,000 miles from Beijing.

He insisted he was tricked into carrying the drug but was convicted in 2008 after a half-hour trial.

Despite being sentenced to death, Mr Shaikh was not told about his impending execution by the Chinese authorities.
Instead, his cousins Suhail and Nasir Shaikh had to break the news yesterday when they visited him in prison.

In a statement after Mr Shaikh's execution, they said: 'We are deeply saddened, stunned and disappointed at the news of the execution of our beloved cousin, Akmal,' they said.

'This was carried out this morning despite repeated requests for clemency and a proper appraisal of Akmal's mental state.

'We are astonished at suggestions that Akmal himself should have provided evidence of his own fragile state of mind.

'We find it ludicrous that any mentally ill person should be expected to provide this, especially when this was apparently bipolar disorder, in which we understand the sufferer has a distorted view of the world, including his own condition.

'That this was regarded as sufficient grounds for refusal by the judicial authorities to order any mental health assessment is shocking to us.

'Despite our own and other pleas, the Chinese authorities have maintained their refusal to investigate Akmal's mental health.

'We are comforted that the authorities have confirmed that Akmal has been buried in accordance with his own and his family's wishes.'

His daughter Leilla Horsnell added: 'I am shocked and disappointed that the execution went ahead with no regards to my dad's mental health problems, and I struggle to understand how this is justice.'

The Chinese have also ignored repeated pleas from British-based prison charity Reprieve, who had worked on behalf of Mr Shaikh.

Speaking after his execution, the organisation's director Clive Stafford Smith said: 'Sad to say, I have watched six people die in execution chambers, and it is as ghastly as it is pointless.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1238454/A'Is the world somehow a better place today because China refused to show compassion for an obviously ill man?

'Of course not. China's refusal to even allow a proper medical evaluation is simply disgusting.'

Reprieve's legal director Sally Rowen had described Mr Shaikh as a 'gentle man who suffering from a tormenting illness.

'He fell through the cracks... as many people with mental illness do,' she added.

Mr Shaikh's case attracted support from mental health campaigners as well as those opposed to the death penalty.

'At this time our thoughts are with Mr Shaikh's family and friends and I send them our sincere condolences.'

Robert Westhead, spokesman for MDF, the Bipolar Organisation, described the execution as 'medieval rough justice' and an 'absolute tragedy'.
'How a society treats people affected by mental illness is always a good indicator of how civilised it is.

'The way the Chinese authorities have stubbornly failed to take account of this poor man's severe mental illness shows that China is still stuck in the dark ages.

'This execution is medieval rough justice gone badly wrong.'

Mr Shaikh's cousins visited him in jail for the last time yesterday.

Speaking exclusively to the Mail, Suhail said: ‘Akmal had lost some weight but he was in high spirits when we first met him because he still believed he could appeal one more time and have his sentence overturned and be saved.

‘He did not know a date had been set for his execution, and he said he was still waiting for an imminent change of heart from the Chinese who would overturn his death sentence and pardon him.’

'We had to break the news to him and tell him that he was to be executed within 24 hours.

‘He did not seem to believe us but we told him the final decision had been passed, and that we had done all we could as a tight-knit, heartbroken family to save him.

‘It was apparent to us that he was suffering from a mental illness. The things he was saying were not the things you’d expect a normal person facing the death sentence to say.

'He was a little tearful at the end. He said he appreciated us being there. We had to be strong for him. We said we had not given up hope.’

The brothers looked solemn as they emerged from the prison hospital into falling snow. They were carrying Mr Shaikh's personal effects in a plastic bag.

As night fell in London, supporters held a candlelit vigil outside the Chinese embassy.

Tom Scott, a freelance theatre director from Catford, said he had become aware of the case through a Facebook group called Stop the Execution of Akmal Shaikh.

He said: 'I am appalled by this case. I am against the death penalty any way in all circumstances but I think this is a particularly bad case - where a man who from all reports, clearly is mentally ill and suffers from delusions was duped by a drugs gang into taking a case which contained heroin into China.

Maya Farr, an 18-year-old customer services representative was also present at the vigil. She said 1,600 people had signalled their support for the Facebook campaign.

'I am personally against the death penalty, but there are so many aspects to this case which we are really opposed to. His mental history has not been assessed.'
Reprieve said new witnesses had emerged following publicity about the case who backed up the defence claim about his mental illness.

Mr Shaikh was obsessed with recording a song that would usher in world peace, the organisation said.

Two British men, Paul Newberry and Gareth Saunders, both quoted by the organisation, said they had helped Mr Shaikh record a song in Poland and that it was clear that he was mentally ill.

Mr Newberry, a British national who lives in Poland, told Reprieve that Mr Shaikh was a 'very, very ill' person.

He said in a statement issued by the organisation: 'I was probably one of the last people who saw Akmal before he left Poland in August 2007.

'I met Akmal in spring 2007 when he started hanging around the tent city that protesting nurses had set up outside the Polish prime minister's offices in Warsaw. The protest attracted a range of 'colourful' characters and he was one of them.

'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.

'I told him a number of times that he should see a doctor, that he was ill, but he just laughed.

'Any person would have been offended had he been a normal person not in the middle of a psychosis.'

He said Mr Shaikh had shown them lyrics to the song 'Run Little Rabbit' written on a paper napkin and tried to convince them it would be a hit.

He said: 'For a few weeks he pestered us until finally we agreed to record it with him.

'I have no idea who paid for the recording studio but I think he used his charm and persistence to persuade the owner to let him record the song.

'I can't imagine anyone singing worse than he did on that recording and we told him so, but he was on such a high, convinced that he would have a huge hit.

'We told him that he was crazy, that it was the worst thing we had ever heard, but he just laughed in our face and repeated that it would be huge.'


CHINA'S DEADLY RECORD

China accounts for nearly three quarters of the world's executions every year, according to human rights campaigners.

Figures from Amnesty International show a minimum of 7,000 death sentences were handed down in China in 2008, with 1,700 executions taking place.

Amnesty International said the Chinese authorities refused to make public national statistics on death sentences and executions and the real figure was 'undoubtedly higher'.

Steve Ballinger, a spokesman for Amnesty International, said: 'China accounts for 72% of the world's executions and China executes far more than any other country by an awfully long way.'

Under Chinese criminal law, a mental patient who commits a crime, and has not completely lost the ability to recognise or control his own conduct at the time, still has criminal responsibility but may be given a lighter punishment.

Mr Ballinger said Amnesty, which campaigns against the use of the death penalty, was concerned that trials in China fall below international fair trial standards.

He said Akmal Shaikh was 'very unlikely' to have received a fair trial.

Other areas of concern to Amnesty in China include restrictions on freedom of expression, and the frequent use of torture in custody - although he said there was no evidence that Shaikh had suffered this.

Although there was still a 'long way to go', he said there had been some gradual improvement, with China earlier this year stating that the Supreme People's Court had to review all death penalty cases.

According to Amnesty International, the Chinese authorities stated their intention in 2008 to increase the use of lethal injection as a 'more humane' method of execution than firing squad.

The organisation said China voted in December 2008 against a UN General Assembly resolution calling for a worldwide moratorium on executions.




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