LONDON—
Britons expressed outrage and disappointment at the decision by Chinese authorities to execute a convicted drug smuggler some claim had issues stemming from mental instability.Following two years of failed appeals, 53-year-old Akmal Shaikh was put to death by lethal injection Tuesday morning at a prison in Urumqi, China. In 2007, Shaikh was convicted by Chinese officials of smuggling drugs in a suitcase from nearby Tajikstan. The father of three denied any knowledge of the four kilograms of heroin found in luggage reportedly belonging to Shaikh.
Under Chinese law, possession of more than 50 grams of heroin is punishable by execution. The decision to execute Shaikh was reached by Chinese authorities after a thirty-minute trial.
Shaikh's execution strikes a blow to two years worth of efforts in which the family of the man as well as British diplomats attempted to have the decision reversed. Members of the Foreign Office had met with officials at the Chinese Embassy in London over the past several weeks to reach a diplomatic agreement regarding the handling of Shaikh by Chinese authorities in the communist state. Those talks failed to make an impact. In the hours after Shaikh's execution, the Foreign Office had a new message for China.
"I had a difficult conversation with the Chinese Ambassador (in London) today," Britain Foreign Office Minster Ivan Lewis told a BBC News presenter. "China's court had not considered the representations made about Mr. Shaikh's mental condition."
British officials accused China of ignoring pleas by the family and supporters of Shaikh to examine the man's mental state by conducting psychiatric and medical examinations during appeal processes. Chinese officials say Britain never offered evidence of Shaikh's mental instability -- a claim British officials refute.
"We gave them lots of evidence of very bizarre behavior by Mr. Shaikh over a long period of time," Lewis said, "and the point we made to them was this evidence meant that any court in any civilized part of the world would institute and commission a full medical assessment to establish Mr. Shaikh's mental health state."
Chinese experts say regardless of the outcome, the international community had a responsibility to respect the punitive decisions made by China with regard to their laws and customs.
"It's human nature to plead for a criminal who is from the same country or the same family, but judicial independence should be fully respected and everyone should be equal before the law," Professor Xue Jinghan of China's University of Political Science told the state-run Xinhua news agency. "Shaikh's case serves as a testimony to China's judicial justice, which deserves full respect from other countries."
Already tense relations between the communist state and western establishments have been made even more tense following the execution of Shaikh. Britons expressed outrage at the act of execution handed down by China.
"I have watched six people die in execution chambers, and it is as ghastly as it is pointless," Clive Smith, director of Reprieve UK, wrote in a statement online. "Is the world somehow a better place today because China refused to show compassion for an obviously ill man?"
According to Amnesty International, China executed more than 1,700 people in 2008, with more than 70% of the world's executions taking place in China. Some crimes that call for executions include tax evasion, embezzlement and drug trafficking.
Britain abolished the death penalty in the 1950s.
