Given the history of British drug dealing in China I can understand why they would consider this a grave crime but this guy really doesn't sound like he was all there. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34616375/ns/world_news-asiapacific U.K.: China executes British man Relatives say man is mentally unstable and was lured into the crime BREAKING NEWS msnbc.com news services updated 25 minutes ago URUMQI, China - Britain says China has executed a Briton convicted of drug-smuggling after rejecting a string of appeals from the British government and his relatives who say the man was mentally unstable and unwittingly lured into the crime. The British Foreign Office issued a statement Tuesday condemning the execution of 53-year-old Akmal Shaikh. He was the first European citizen executed in China in half a century. Shaikh first learned his death sentence would be carried out from his visiting cousins on Monday, who made a last-minute plea for his life. They say he was mentally unstable and was lured to China from a life on the street in Poland by men playing on his dreams to record a pop song for world peace. Earlier Tuesday, China's supreme court approved the death sentence, the Xinhua news agency said. Shaikh's family and the British government had appealed for clemency, arguing the former businessman suffers from bipolar disorder. The supreme court rejected the appeal saying there was insufficient grounds, and that Shaikh himself did not provide evidence of that. Shaikh was still "hopeful" when relatives met him in Urumqi this weekend, his cousin Soohail Shaikh told reporters at the Beijing airport late on Monday night. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown last week asked China not to execute Shaikh, who was born in Pakistan and moved to Britain as a boy. While not leading to any diplomatic rift, the case could harden public opinion in Britain against China. Tricked into smuggling? 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. He is the first European citizen to be executed in China since 1951, Western rights groups say. "The case has been processed in accordance with the law... The defendant's litigation rights and legitimate treatment have been fully granted," Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said last week, adding that drug smuggling was considered a "grave crime" internationally. He was convicted in 2008 after a half-hour trial. In one court appearance during his trial and appeal process, the judges reportedly laughed at his rambling remarks. Shaikh's cousin Nasir Shaikh said Akhmal asked him during a prison visit Monday whether he had been mentioned by Britain's Queen Elizabeth in her Christmas Day speech. "These do not seem like the kind of ramblings of a sane person fit to stand trial and ultimately receive a death sentence," said Nasir Shaikh. "With maximum respect for the People's Republic of China and for its laws and for its law institutions and its people, we make the submission that Akhmal be urgently granted a professional medical assessment before it is too late." Last-minute appeals are almost never granted in China, which executes more people each year than all other countries combined. "Drug smuggling is a grave crime. The rights of the defendant have been fully guaranteed," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told a news conference last week. The cousins were given a bag of Shaikh's belongings Monday. Two British diplomats accompanied the cousins but said they were not authorized to speak to journalists. "The Prime Minister has intervened personally on a number of occasions: He has raised the case with Premier Wen (Jiabao), most recently at the Copenhagen summit; and has written several times to President Hu (Jintao)," said an e-mail from the British government. In Beijing, British Embassy spokesman David Shaw said confirmation that the execution had been carried out would come from the Foreign Office in London. Britain has accused Chinese officials of not taking Shaikh's mental health concerns into account, with a proper psychiatric evaluation, as required by law.
Here are two other links with in-depth discussion that you might find interesting http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elizabeth-lynch/will-the-chinese-courts-a_b_333672.html http://www.scmp.com/portal/site/SCM...b5210VgnVCM100000360a0a0aRCRD&ss=China&s=News
There are too many inconsistencies in this guy's own insanity story. The main point being there was no UK medical report saying he has bipolar. I would give benefit of doubt to PRC in this case. I do think it is alright for UK to plead for clemency but PRC not granting it is also reasonable.
He's a drug dealer. Why should it take longer? If the evidencei s there, I don't see why it would take longer than 5 minutes. I especially find distasteful that the guy's side tried to use pity (he just wanted to be a popstar). How many childrens' dreams were ruined because they or their father abused a slice of that heroine? Execution is harsh in this situation, but his background suggests that he was fully aware of the consequences of dealing heroine in China. Makes me sad, really that becoming a popstar was important enough to ignore logic, ethics, morals, etc..
Texas could save a lot of tax dollars, if our executions followed the Chinese timeline. The Chinese are brilliant.
Just curious. Is this case special for any reason? I mean, is this the first case of a British citizen getting executed? Or that this case was somehow mishandled badly by the police or something? Otherwise, it seems like a non-story. A lot of Asian countries have pretty strict policies on drugs. And with the history of the Opium War, being a British drug dealer in China is just asking to be shot.
...imagine this guy being marched out into an empty field, forced to kneel, a gun put to the back of his head, those ... few ... seconds ... before ... his brains are splattered all over the grass. No state has the right to murder human beings. They take that right because they're bigger than we are ... and because they have so many simpering ***** among us who would gladly let the state do these things in their name as long as they feel the cops are protecting their nice new car.
since when does being bipolar excuse you from committing crime? The guy committed a serious crime in China, he screwed up. No one "tricked" him into smuggling drugs - he knew he was smuggling drugs. He wasn't blackmailed. I'm sorry, but I can understand why China stuck to it's guns here.
This is outrageous. A 30 minute trial for an alleged crime that carries the death penalty? I say "alleged" because with a "trial" like the accused has been subjected to a farce. China carries out more executions than all other nations combined, which is something the country should be ashamed of, not that its own citizens have any real ability to protest the policies of the government, and the government has no shame.
Considering the guy was living on the street in Poland for the past few years I'm not surprised the UK doesn't have a medical record for him but I think living on the street in Poland for a few years though is evidence for mental instability already.
Have you considered that it really is mental instability or deficiency that led him to do that and not some failure of logic, ethics and morals?
Well, for one reason, there were questions about his mental health, the implications of which should take far longer than 5 minutes to hash out (not to mention the basic fact finding on the matter). Evidence cannot be properly considered in a hasty process, especially when the presumption seems to be against the defendant. When you hold somebody's life in the balance, I would think taking every precaution to get the verdict right should be taken.
If you read the huffingtonpost link, you should see the beef is about Chinese courts cursory treatment of this man's medical condition.
I ask because of this part of the MSNBC article: Even if a psychiatric test was given and he was found to 'only' have bipolar, I doubt it would be enough to get him a lighter sentence in the UK, let alone China. Given his behaviour and the severity of the crime, I would've appealed on grounds that he has something more serious than bipolar. Maybe I'm underestimating the effects of bipolar, but I have friends who are on meds for it, and while they may do things that seem 'stupid' to us, the bipolar itself does not r****d their intellect, and they are perfectly conscious of what they are doing.
Bipolar disorder can manifest in severe delusional thinking, as seems to be the case here. The guy legitimately thought he could be a pop star, likely convinced that it was his purpose in life and that he was compelled to do everything he could to achieve it.
