Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he was "appalled and disappointed" by the execution of Akmal Shaikh, a 53-year-old father-of-three who according to supporters had bipolar disorder. His family expressed grief and asked for privacy.

China confirmed the execution and defended its use of capital punishment as a deterrent, saying evidence of Shaikh's mental illness was "insufficient". It said it hoped London would not "create new obstacles" to diplomatic ties.

Shaikh is the first European national executed in China in 50 years, according to the London-based charity Reprieve, which had provided him with legal counsel.

Reprieve said China had ignored "overwhelming and unrebutted evidence" of his condition.

A statement by the Swedish presidency of the European Union said: "The European Union condemns in the strongest terms the execution of Akmal Shaikh.

"It deeply regrets the fact that China has not heeded the repeated calls by the European Union and one of its member states" for Shaikh's death sentence to be commuted, it added.

London had launched an 11th-hour appeal for clemency, urging Beijing to "do the right thing" by halting the execution in Urumqi, capital of the far-western Xinjiang region.

But Shaikh was executed on Tuesday by lethal injection, state news agency Xinhua reported.

Brown vented his anger, saying: "I condemn the execution of Akmal Shaikh in the strongest terms, and am appalled and disappointed that our persistent requests for clemency have not been granted.

"I am particularly concerned that no mental health assessment was undertaken."

Chinese ambassador Fu Ying was summoned to Britain's Foreign Office.

"I had a difficult conversation with the Chinese ambassador today," said junior foreign minister Ivan Lewis.

"I made clear that the execution of Mr Shaikh was totally unacceptable and that China had failed in its basic human rights responsibilities in this case."

"China needs to understand it will only ever achieve full respect around the world when it subscribes to basic standards of human rights," he told Sky News television.

Shaikh, from London, was arrested in September 2007 in Urumqi after arriving from Tajikistan with four kilograms (about nine pounds) of heroin. Campaigners say a criminal gang duped him into carrying the drugs into China.

He was sentenced to death in December 2008 and lost his final appeal earlier this year in China's Supreme Court, officials say.

Two of his cousins visited him in Urumqi on Monday and told him of his fate. Reprieve said it was the first time he had seen a family member in two years.

The family issued a short statement expressing "grief at the Chinese decision to refuse mercy" and thanking supporters who had created a Facebook group and staged a vigil in London Monday.

Reprieve said it had medical evidence that Shaikh suffered from a delusion that he was going to China to record a hit single that would usher in world peace.

They had produced new witnesses Monday to back that version of events.

One, Briton Paul Newberry, was quoted by Reprieve as saying Shaikh "was clearly suffering from delusions and it seemed to me he was a particularly severe case of manic depressive."

It was the second time in less than a week that China's judiciary had come under fire in the West, after top dissident Liu Xiaobo was jailed for 11 years on December 25 for subversion.

China's Supreme Court said the evidence of Shaikh's mental illness was "insufficient", according to the central government's website.

It justified the use of capital punishment saying: "To use the death penalty for extremely threatening and serious crimes involving drugs is beneficial to instilling fear and preventing drug crimes."

Foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said Shaikh's rights had been "fully protected".

China treated "criminals of all nationalities as equals" in combating the drugs trade, she added.

"We hope the British side will face this case squarely and not create new obstacles for China-Britain relations," she added.

A Hong Kong spokeswoman for global rights watchdog Amnesty International, Roseann Rife, called the execution a "slap in the face of the international community."

It showed Beijing's "disregard for the rule of law", she added.

del.icio.us	Digg	Reddit
YahooMyWeb	Google	Facebook

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS Solar Energy Solutions Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ... Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News