British citizen faces imminent execution in China

Beijing - Family members of a British citizen due to be executed for drug smuggling have arrived in China to make a final plea for clemency to authorities, a rights group said. Akmal Shaikh, 53, is due to be executed on Tuesday morning in Beijing after he was convicted of trafficking 4 kilograms of heroin to Urumqi in China's western Xinjiang region.

"We plead for his life," his cousin Soohail Shaikh said in a petition that is to be delivered Monday to the court in Urumqi, as well as to President Hu Jintao, the National People's Congress, and Supreme People's Court, Britain-based activist group Reprieve, said.

Shaikh's supporters have argued that the father-of-three suffers from a mental illness, bi-polar disorder, and that he was manipulated by a drug gang into smuggling the heroin.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown earlier in the month had called for clemency. However, Shaikh's final appeal was turned down on December 21, Reprieve said.

China maintains that Shaikh's trial was fair, and that there was no evidence that he was suffering from a mental illness.

"During the entire process, the litigation rights and the relevant rights and interests of the defendant were fully respected and guaranteed. China has offered prompt consular information to the United Kingdom and arranged consular visits," the state-run China Daily news quoted Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu as saying.

In an earlier report, the ministry said that Shaikh himself had denied a family history of mental illness.

Under Article 347 of China's Criminal Law, for those found guilty of smuggling, trafficking, or transporting heroin, the threshold for a death sentence is 50 grams.

But, according to Article 18 of the Criminal Law, a mental patient can have his or her criminal responsibility exempted.

Shaikh's family were asking "that a full mental health evaluation be conducted to assess the impact of his mental illness, and that recognition be made that he is not as culpable as those who might, under Chinese law, be eligible for the death penalty."

If Shaikh's execution is carried out, it will be the first execution of an European Union national in China in 50 years, local media said.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/301168,british-citizen-faces-imminent-execution-in-china.html.