Mentally Ill Briton, Akmal Shaikh, Executed In China
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I've always believed that if you break the law, you suffer the consequences. And the fact you happen to be a foreigner in a foreign land shouldn't exempt you from being prosecuted and sentenced for your crime. When you travel abroad you should familiarize yourself with the laws of the land to make sure you don't inadvertently break one, unless you intentionally mean to thwart the law. Like smuggling drugs. It happens all over the world, yet drug smuggling laws are some of the toughest; in some you can even lose your life if you are caught. China is one such country, and though the death penalty for drug smuggling seems like overkill, it is their law. Unfortunately, a Briton, Akmal Shaikh and his family, learned just how unwavering and cruel the Chinese can be when it comes to their laws, even though his judgement was in question.
Shaikh, who was apparently mentally ill, was caught in September 2007 at the Urumqi airport in China carrying 4 kilos of heroin in his suitcase. He was sentenced to death in 2008 and was scheduled to be executed, in spite of appeals for last minute clemency from both his family and the British government, including Gordon Brown.
Ivan Lewis, a Foreign Office minister, called on China to show clemency for Shaikh, who faces the death penalty on Tuesday, saying it was "not appropriate" to execute someone with a mental illness."Even at this late stage I hope they will see that in a modern world it is not appropriate to put a man with mental illness to death," Mr Lewis said.
I would tend to agree- Shaikh had to be either incredibly stupid or mentally ill to think he could get away with trying to smuggle 4 kilos of heroin. And mental illness makes much more sense. The man was 53-years-old, not some teenager who thinks he's infallible.
His family said he suffers from bipolar disorder and has a long history of delusional behaviour. They want his mental health to be evaluated by a doctor, something the Chinese have refused to do. Mrs Horsnell, one of five children of the 53-year-old former boss of a minicab company, said his illness is such that it prevented Mr Shaikh from defending himself during his trial. "We do know that in one of his appeals he insisted on giving his own statements and he couldn't even speak properly, and what he was saying wasn't making much sense," she said. Last week, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said he had received a fair trial.
There were even people who attested to the fact that he went to China to record a song about world peace. According to British human rights organization Reprieve
said it had medical evidence that Shaikh suffered from a delusion he was going to China to record a hit single that would usher in world peace. New witnesses have emerged to back that claim.Two British men, Paul Newberry and Gareth Saunders, both quoted by Reprieve, said they had helped him record a song in Poland and it was clear that he was mentally disturbed.
Why the Chinese refused to have his sanity checked just demonstrates how draconian their rule still is. And they defended their lack of compassion by claiming
the evidence of Shaikh's mental illness was "insufficient".
Even though there was no evaluation, per se. And his death would serve as a deterrent to what they deem "extremely threatening and serious crimes involving drugs".
Although there have been last minute reprieves in the past I didn't hold much hope for Shaikh, since China has the highest rate of death penalty executions in the world; and they certainly wouldn't want to appear as if they were willing to bow to international pressure. That would make them look weak. So Shaikh was executed today, and the Chinese justice system just proves how cruel it can be.
