Posted on 12/29/2009 7:52:28 AM PST by Federalist Patriot
Here is a video report on news that China has executed a British citizen for "Drug Smuggling," despite pleas from the British Government and his family to spare his life.
Akmal Shaikh was arrested and charged with possessing heroin in 2007. Shaikh's family said he was mentally ill, and appealed to the Chinese to not execute him.
The Chinese ambassador Fu Ying has been summoned to the Foreign Office amid a growing row between the UK and China over the execution of a British man.
Akmal Shaikh, 53, a father-of-three from London, was executed in China after being convicted of drug smuggling despite claims he was mentally ill.
Foreign Office Minister Ivan Lewis told the ambassador "China had failed in its basic human rights responsibilities."
The Chinese Embassy said Mr Shaikh had no previous record of mental illness.
Mr Lewis said after the meeting: "I had a difficult conversation with the Chinese Ambassador today.
"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, in particular that China's court had not considered the representations made about Mr Shaikh's mental condition.
"It is an important element of a mature bilateral relationship that we are able to speak frankly about issues on which we disagree and that those concerns are heard." . . . . . . . (VIDEO)
(Excerpt) Read more at freedomslighthouse.com ...
Maybe we need to get tougher on our drug smugglers, and terrorists! Not sure if this guy had mental illness, highly doubtful if there was no prior record.
Ah, I’m torn on this one.
We got all upset when Mexico tried to block an execution in Texas.
I wouldn’t feel bad about this if China had a decent judiciary system. As it is, I am not at all sure that the guy got a fair trial.
Seems the standard defense for anyone facing the death penalty is ‘mental illness’. China or here.
wow.....another “innocent” criminal. funny how none of them are ever guilty. i wish we would take the same type of action in the u.s.
How much for the kidneys? /sarc
Akmal Shaikh —Now that is a fine old British name.
Akmal Shaikh?
Perhaps the Chinese had more on their mind than drug smuggling. I wouldn’t really know.
Heaven knows insanity was disreputable enough, long ago;
but now that the lawyers have got to cutting every gallows
rope and picking every prison lock with it, it is become
a sneaking villainy that ought to hang and keep on hanging
its sudden possessors until evil-doers should conclude
that the safest plan was to never claim to have it until
they came by it legitimately.
The very calibre of the people the lawyers most frequently
try to save by the insanity subterfuge ought to laugh the
plea out of the courts, one would think.
- “Unburlesquable Things,” The Galaxy Magazine, July 1870
MARK TWAIN
I’m not a big fan of the PRC but what does “mentally ill” have to do with drug smuggling? Of course he was mentally ill - he was smuggling to a country that has a Death Penalty for drug smuggling! I don’t see how that’s gonna mitigate the penalty.
You really have to be crazy to smuggle dope into China.
The old fashioned “It can’t happen to me” approach is what he took.
According to chinese Law, Drug Smuggling 50 gram can be sentence to death, but this english guy smuggled 5KG!! It is a every common case, but because of the interruption of the english leader and some so called fare western presses, this case lasted so long... (foreigners in China are always treated well and enjoy more special care than the chinese their own, i remember a japanese guy was found ill in a train when he was travelling in China, the chinese even made a emergency stop for him and called the helicopter. If was a chinese, don’t even think about this service) Their excuse is mental ill, no one gonna believe this stupid excuse. How could a mental ill guy travel abroad by himself,(left his family alone at home) booked rooms, tickes and so on all by himeslf??? just imagine, if a chinese guy bring such quatity drug to the UK, and if UK has death penalty. Will the UK made an exception for the chinese guy just because the chinese goverment and presses said this guy is mental ill????? If you understand the history, you will understand why there is death penalty for drug Smuggling.In 1840, the english broke the door to china by drug, and took thier gold, silver by dirty tricks. i dont’ understand why the english and some stupied western presses always regards them as representative of the so called democracy and human right??? how they explain the defination of thoese nouns??? They always have a Pride and Prejudice towards China even if they have never came to China and understand China....
You are absolutely right, as a Chinese, i feel unfair and most Chinese is angried when the train is stopped for a Japanese. if for us guys, i will feel better.wow, japan is the enemy to china
“In 1840, the english broke the door to china by drug, and took thier gold, silver by dirty tricks. i dont’ understand why the english and some stupied western presses always regards them as representative of the so called democracy and human right??? how they explain the defination of thoese nouns??? They always have a Pride and Prejudice towards China even if they have never came to China and understand China....”
People don’t realize the history like you and (I daresay) I do. Drugs literally crippled China and I swear to GOD that this man deserved it. The Chinese haven’t forgotten and never will.
It’s all the worse that Britain tried to interfere, which I am sure brought back nasty memories of the colonial powers literally gutting Chinese society.
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