Asia-Pacific News

Anglo-Chinese relations under strain after execution (Roundup)

Dec 29, 2009, 12:49 GMT

The Chinese ambassador in London Fu Ying (C) leaves the Foreign Office in Central London by chauffeur driven car after a meeting with Foreign Office minister Ivan Lewis 29 December 2009. EPA/STR

Beijing/London - Anglo-Chinese relations were under strain Tuesday following the execution by lethal injection of a British man convicted of smuggling heroin into China.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown condemned 'in the strongest terms' the execution of Akmal Shaikh, a 53-year-old Briton of Pakistani origin arrested with a suitcase containing more than 4 kilograms of heroin in 2007.

Shaikh, who operated a taxi firm in north London until 2005, was executed at 10:30 am (0230 GMT) Tuesday in Urumqi, in China's western region of Xinjiang, despite last-minute appeals for clemency.

It was the first execution of a European national in China in 50 years, according to human rights group Reprieve which had taken up Shaikh's case.

'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,' Brown said in a statement released in London.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband also condemned the move. He said Britain was 'completely opposed to the use of the death penalty in all circumstances.'

Shaikh's family and campaigners say he is suffering from bipolar disorder, a mental illness causing delusions, and was duped by a drug gang into smuggling the heroin while living in Poland in 2005.

His daughter, Lisa Hornsell, said in London she was shocked and disappointed that the execution went ahead despite her father's health problems. 'I am struggling to understand how this is justice,' she said.

Foreign Office minister Ivan Lewis, who had made last-minute representations on Shaikh's behalf, said it was likely that he died from a lethal injection.

'We know that he was buried quickly in accordance with the requirements of the Muslim faith and his family's wishes,' Lewis said in London.

In a sharp reposte, the Chinese embassy in London said in a statement that Shaikh was convicted of a 'serious crime' and that the amount of heroin found on him could have 'caused 26,800 deaths, threatening numerous families.'

The statement, issued within hours of the execution, said that the Briton had 'no previous medical record' of mental illness and that his rights and interests had been respected.

'During the legal process, Mr Shaikh's rights and interests were properly respected and guaranteed and the concerns of the British side were duly noted and taken into consideration by the Chinese judicial authorities,' the embassy statement said.

'As for his possible mental illness which has been much talked about, there apparently has been no previous medical record,' it added.

However, it also said: 'The legal structures of China and UK may be different, but it should not stand in the way of enhancing our bilateral relations on the basis of mutual respect.'

Lewis said the British government had made 27 representations, including a top-level intervention by Brown just days before the execution. The European Union (EU) also intervened.

Lewis, who called China's ambassador, Fu Ying, into the Foreign Office in a last-ditch appeal late Monday, said the fact that a medical assessment had been denied had 'caused most offence, in terms of the relationship between our two countries.'

'Of course, in principle, Britain opposes the death penalty - in China, America, anywhere else - but it is the fact that this man had mental health problems that makes this completely unacceptable,' he told Sky News.

Lewis stressed Britain's 'important relationship' with China in areas such as the economy, climate change and the international fight against terrorism.

But he warned: 'China needs to understand it will only ever achieve full respect around the world when it subscribes to basic standards of human rights. As long as that is not the case, that will always affect the perception of many people around the world of China and its place in the world.'

Human rights group Amnesty International said the execution highlighted the injustice and inhumanity of the death penalty, particularly as it is being implemented in China.

'Under international human rights law, as well Chinese law, a defendant's mental health can and should be taken into account, and it doesn't seem that in this case the Chinese authorities did so,' said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty's Asia programme director.

According to Amnesty International's latest annual report on the death penalty, at least 7,000 death sentences were handed down in China in 2008, with 1,700 executions having been carried out.

China accounted for 72 per cent of the world's executions - far more than any other country.