Akmal Shaikh
Akmal Shaikh is a British national who has been held in prison in the People's Republic of China under charges of drug trafficking. He was arrested in September 2007 in Urumqi, north-west China, by Chinese police and found to be carrying 4kg of heroin. The Chinese criminal code provides the death penalty for smuggling heroin in quantities more than 50 grams, and Shaikh was sentenced to death.
Shaikh has denied all knowledge of the heroin, and it is claimed that he was duped into carrying the drugs as an unwitting mule after falling for a confidence trick. An appeal to the Chinese Supreme Court failed on 21 December 2009 and Shaikh is due to be executed, either by lethal injection or firing squad, on 29 December 2009.[1]
Campaigners for the release of Shaikh say the he suffers from a form a bipolar disorder and is especially susceptible to confidence tricks such as the one which led him to carry heroin. The case has attracted support from the United Nations,[2] various human rights organisations as well as from notable individuals such as the prime minister of the United Kingdom, Gordon Brown, and actor Stephen Fry (himself a sufferer of bipolar disorder).[3]
References
- ^ Dodd, Vikram (21 December 2009). "Briton's death sentence upheld by China's supreme court". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 December 2009.
- ^ "U.N. official urges China not to execute Briton". CNN. 24 December 2009. Retrieved 26 December 2009.
- ^ Llewellyn, Gareth (21 October 2009). "Mentally ill Briton 'could be executed within days'". The Independent. Retrieved 26 December 2009.
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