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Supporters urge mercy for 'ill' Briton facing China execution

China says high court reviewing Briton's death sentence
China's highest court is reviewing the case of a British national who was sentenced to death for drug trafficking, the government said Tuesday, meaning a decision on his fate was likely imminent. Akmal Shaikh was sentenced to death on December 9, 2008, by a court in Urumqi, capital of China's western Xinjiang province, foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu told reporters. "His case is currently being reviewed by the Supreme Court. All the procedures have been in line with relevant Chinese laws," he said. Executions in China usually occur immediately after the nation's high court upholds death sentences issued by lower courts and issues an execution order. However, the high court could also overturn the death sentence and spare his life. The British weekly The Observer reported on Sunday that Shaikh was arrested after entering Xinjiang with four kilograms (nine pounds) of heroin in September 2007. The 53-year-old has a history of mental illness and was allegedly tricked into bringing the drugs into China by traffickers in Tajikistan, the weekly reported. In an effort to get the death sentence overturned, the British Embassy in China proposed giving Shaikh psychiatric tests to show that he was mentally unfit, Ma said. "But the (embassy) did not offer any proof and the defendant himself said he and his family have no history of mental illness," Ma said. An official with the British Embassy said only that they were aware of the case and were awaiting the outcome of the case. According to the London-based rights group Amnesty International, China executes more people every year than the rest of the world combined, but the actual numbers put to death remain a state secret.
by Staff Writers
 London (AFP) Oct 13, 2009
 A Briton facing the death penalty for drug trafficking in China probably has serious mental illness and should not be executed, supporters said Tuesday.

Akmal Shaikh, who is thought to have bipolar disorder, was arrested in 2007 at Urumqui in China's western Xinjiang province with around four kilograms of heroin. Supporters say he was tricked into carrying it.

He was sentenced to death in 2008 and his case is currently being reviewed by China's Supreme Court, which means a final decision on his fate is likely to be imminent. Executions in China normally follow quickly after a decision.

His case has been taken up by British legal rights group Reprieve, whose director Clive Stafford Smith said Shaikh had not been properly assessed by a medic.

"He's in very dire straits because he's about to face the very last appeal," Stafford Smith at a press conference in London.

"After that, the Chinese process is that they take a bullet and they fire it in the back of your head...

"We want him at least to be properly evaluated by a doctor."

The 53-year-old, who lives in London but whose family is originally from Pakistan, has a history of erratic behaviour, his brother and Reprieve said.

After moving to Poland in the hope of starting an airline, despite lacking the cash to do so, he met a man called Carlos who told him he could help him become a pop star and sent him to Kyrgyzstan.

He ended up in Tajikistan where he was put up in a five-star hotel, given a bag and told to fly to China, where he was arrested on arrival, Reprieve said.

His brother Akbar Shaikh told the press conference: "I'd like to appeal to the Chinese authorities to show compassion to my brother".

The Foreign Office in London said it had already made "representations" to the Chinese authorities over Shaikh's case and would continue to do so.

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