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 4 kilograms (9 lb) 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 in which a gang of fraudsters pretended they would help Shaikh become a pop star.[1][2]
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.[3] If the execution goes ahead, Shaikh will be the first national of a European Union country to be executed in China in over 50 years.
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,[4] various human rights organisations and mental health charities, 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).[5]
See also
- Antonio Riva an Italian executed in China in 1951
References
- ^ "Cases - Akmal Shaikh". Reprieve (campaigning organisation). Retrieved 26 December 2009.
- ^ Dodd, Vikran (22 December 2009). "Family plead for life of mentally ill Briton facing execution in China". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 December 2009.
- ^ 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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