I was saddened to read that at 10.30am yesterday, China executed Briton Akmal Shaikh after he was caught with 4kg of heroin in his luggage as he entered China in 2007. The British government has angrily condemned the execution and of course, human rights organisations have been quick to criticise as well. Mr Shaikh’s family claim he was mentally ill and was taken advantage of by drug traffickers, but China went ahead with the execution anyway.
No doubt this will reinforce many British people’s perception that China is a barbaric place where human rights are ignored, but I think if you’re caught with 4kg of heroin and your best defense is mental illness, it’s not looking very good. I mean, haven’t you got to be just a little bit mental to murder someone? And mental illness didn’t stop Britain from approving the extradition of British hacker Gary McKinnon (who has a form of Autism) to the US where he is wanted for hacking in to US military computers, so it does seem the British government is somewhat hypercritical of China, but no surprise there.
I suppose it didn’t help that China was blamed for the lack of progress by most western countries in the recent climate change summit in Copenhagen.
I’m not in any way supporting the execution of course, but the exchanging of insults isn’t really going to help much.
December 30th, 2009 at 9:07 pm
can’t quite work out what view you’re taking on this one. One minute you’re saddened the next you seem to have no sympathy for the guy then you end by saying trading insults isnt going to help. Not sure any insults have been traded – rather just the normal diplomatic language about not approving of another country’s actions.
Personally I feel the guy was duped into smuggling the drugs but what kind of a person agrees to take a suitcase on someone elses behalf. However, China shouldnt have executed him but sent him back to the uk to serve sentence – as laos recently did in a similar situation.
December 30th, 2009 at 9:57 pm
what a gloomy post before the new year !! …
tomorrow’s post better be about partying !!! lol
December 30th, 2009 at 11:11 pm
I have not followed this story closely, so can’t really comment. However, I would agree that this will not help improve the world view of China’s human rights issues.
I do feel for Mr Shaikh’s family – it is a truly sad day for them.
December 30th, 2009 at 11:12 pm
@DDD – Yes, you’re quite right. I’m not really sure where I stand. Maybe that’s what happens when a Chinese person is born and brought up in England. I guess what I am trying to say is that there are two sides and I’m not too happy about the superior, self rightious stance Britain and the US often try to take in these types of matters. But execution is so final and can’t be reversed, so I wish the Chinese had taken a bit more time to decide the fate of poor Mr Shaikh. He wasn’t going anywhere, so there was no rush.
@Anthony – Yes, sorry, bad timing. I’ll see if I can be more cheerful in the next post!
December 30th, 2009 at 11:17 pm
@Kim C – But that’s my point. Innocent people have been executed in the US. And a massively disproportionate number of people executed in the US are black.
Britain agreed to extradition of Gary McKinnon to the US even though he is confirmed as having a mental illness.
But both countries are ever so keen to point the finger and criticise China at every opportunity.
December 31st, 2009 at 3:27 am
Whatever the viewpoint, there’s a strong anti-death undercurrent and cheers for that.
December 31st, 2009 at 4:27 am
I’m anti-death penalty in all cases myself. But I find the outrage from the British government about it sickeningly hypocritical.
We bankroll and deal arms to the Saudi regime who are one of the world worst offenders in torture and executions. And where’s the outraged statements about the USA executions? The USA are also known for putting the mentally ill on death row .. and they stand alone in their execution of people who were convicted as minors.
The lunatics are running the asylum.
December 31st, 2009 at 9:56 am
@Morgan – Yes, I’m glad at least that the British abolished executions in the 1960s. It’s not just that I am against death, but for me, if ONE innocent person is executed then it’s not worth it and sadly, there have been far more innocents killed this way. In Britain, people have been released after 30 years in prison after proven innocent. They’ve lost 30 years but they’re still alive!
@Andy – Thanks I think you expressed my sentiments far better than I managed to!
December 31st, 2009 at 12:34 pm
The US certainly has a shameful history with capital punishment and Britain’s hypocrisy has been well pointed out here, but lets understand China is in a different league altogether in the area of modern capital punishment.
According to Amnesty International, China executed 1,777 vs 60 in the US in 2005. The Chinese government does not release statistics so this is only an estimate, and AI indicates the number could be as high as 8,000. AI estimates the number at 1,718 for 2008 and the number is 37 in the US. Capital punishment is so commonplace in China that a fleet of death vans roams the country meting out “justice”. http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-06-14-death-van_x.htm
From what I have researched there is ample circumstantial evidence to warrant looking into Akmal’s claims of being duped. He was not given this opportunity. Akmal was not allowed to present evidence in his defense and the Chinese courts decided that a 30 minute trial was sufficient enough to contemplate taking away a man’s life. Akmal was allowed 50 minutes to make a statement and while he pleaded for his life, the judges openly laughed at him.
I think those reasons are enough to reinforce other country’s views about China being a barbaric country where human rights are ignored.
The name of this blog is I Love China. I too love China; the history, the people, the culture, etc. I have no love for a cowardly system that does not allow its people to speak their mind like adults, access outside news sources, or that would behave like it has in the case of Akmal. We can always point out the mistakes other country’s have made, but that does not excuse the mistakes being made by China and the extent to which it is outside of currently accepted humane standards on a broad range of issues.
Yes the US has made a ton of mistakes, but also has made significant progress and as long as countries like China do not progress, the finger should be pointed at them. The UK used to coat people with tar and hang them in public squares, but has progressed to the point where executions have been outlawed. A country should be judged on its current state and turning a blind eye to China’s ugly side will not help it progress to where it should. This is why the real heroes of China are the AiWeiwEi’s and not the cronies of a system bent on self preservation at the expense of the greater good.
December 31st, 2009 at 1:54 pm
-Hi HipHopFrog, I don’t want to argue anything, but like to point out some might-be-mistakes.
“Akmal was not allowed to present evidence in his defense and the Chinese courts decided that a 30 minute trial was sufficient enough to contemplate taking away a man’s life. Akmal was allowed 50 minutes to make a statement and while he pleaded for his life, the judges openly laughed at him.”
What I heard is Akmal didn’t ask for mental assessment and he wrote down some statement saying like he and his family didn’t have any mental illness history. Of course I didn’t heard what Akmal said and saw what he’s written, so it might not be true.
You have a lot numbers and researches to prove china is a bad country (or you mean the chinese govxxnmxnt(sorry just want to avoid the censorship, haha)). Yes, you may be right on this. And I do agree to point fingers to the chixxx goxxxnment for their ugly side (I do that a lot!).
But you know what, we can’t think everything a “bad” guy did must be bad. Like you said, “Yes the US has made a ton of mistakes, but also has made significant progress” — we can’t say everything US did is wrong because US made a lot mistakes, right?
But your opinions here are all based on that “china did wrong on Akmal’s case”. Isn’t it the truth? I really don’t know. All I can do is to tell you what I heard from the china side.
December 31st, 2009 at 2:13 pm
Oh, one more thing, I read some experts interview, said according to the Chinese criminal law, there are 2 very strict requirements to decide if mental illnesses take account in a crime (I agree it should be strict, because nowadays so many people use “mental illness” to defend their guilty). First, the psychological status of the suspect, can he tell or control his behavior when he commit the crime; Second, it must be medically considered to be the strict sense of the mental illness, rather than a very broad sense, personality disorders, psychological abnormalities, paranoid personality, these are not judicial recognition of mental illness by the chinese law (does that mean bipolar disorder is not considered in this case? cause people who suffer from such illness know what they are doing? correct me if i was wrong).
December 31st, 2009 at 2:15 pm
Forget to say, HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL WOAI AND HIS READERS AND THEIR FAMILY AND FRIENDS!!
December 31st, 2009 at 2:38 pm
I believe the moment you make the choice to smuggle drugs into a country that has the death penalty you make a choice to take the risk of being caught and executed.
Watch that series on NGC “Locked Up Abroad” almost all people that go for the “easy” money by drug smuggle and than start whining when they are caught and thrown into an awful jail.
Make the choice, live with the consequences.
December 31st, 2009 at 3:01 pm
@jeffwho, If Akmal was truly delusional (and from what I have read, he was) then I wouldn’t place much stock in his own evaluation of his mental health and based on the outside pleas alone, China should have conducted a proper assessment. Even if you feel that China should not consider his mental health in this matter, I think people should consider that he may truly have been oblivious and was duped. I don’t think 30 minutes and Akmal not being allowed to present evidence is sufficient enough to have considered this.
I’m not saying everything the Chinese government does is wrong, if thats what you feel. I’m just saying that when it does do wrong, people should point it out and not be afraid to do so without having to pepper their statement’s with x’s as a way of hiding from the eye of big brother. That should tell you there is a problem.
Wrong is wrong. To say its ok to pollute the environment because other countries ‘used to not worry about it’ is wrong. To say its ok to turn a blind eye to China’s current problems because other countries have also made mistakes is wrong. To execute a man after a 30 minute trial is wrong.
December 31st, 2009 at 3:02 pm
“I believe the moment you make the choice to smuggle drugs into a country that has the death penalty you make a choice to take the risk of being caught and executed.”
And what if you never made that choice?
December 31st, 2009 at 3:49 pm
@Hopfrog, if you never made that choice it is another case but honestly I find it hard to believe. 4kg is not nothing.
Also most drug smugglers you hear about say the were duped, but most probably weren’t.
Don’t take someone elses things across a border, it’s not that hard.
December 31st, 2009 at 4:08 pm
I agree with Anna!!
December 31st, 2009 at 4:55 pm
@Anna, Your judging him without process which is exactly what the Chinese courts did. He may very well be a drug smuggler who would say anything to protect his own hide. It is also possible that his story is true. He never had the chance to make his case. I hope we never get to the point where its acceptable to kill people because they “probably” were guilty.
January 1st, 2010 at 6:02 am
@hiphop frog, “If Akmal was truly delusional (and from what I have read, he was)” But from what I read from the Chinese news, he wasn’t. I also read the English news. Which should I believe? You chose to believe what you read because of all the bad things Chinese government did (I was using xxx to try to show some humors, not because I was “afraid” ). You talked about the “30 minutes trial” a lot, let me ask you, if he didn’t need mental assessment and he was not asking for the assessment, isn’t 30 minutes long enough for a so obvious crime?
For your second paragraph, like I said before, I totally agree with you. When it does do wrong, people should point it out – of course we should do that, but please prove it does wrong first.
You just assumed that it did wrong all based on the wrong things it did and the news you read!
I read what you read too. Do you really think they already gave out solid proofs proving that what court did was wrong? Not even close! You keep saying the “bad” things china did, did that prove you were right about china this time? I’m afraid it didn’t.
I’m not saying that what the court said was totally true and I believe them all whatsoever，but after I read news from both sides, I found out what the court said is more believable than the other side claiming Akmal’s illness but showing no solid proof (I think medical record is a very good one) – they just keep saying Akmal has mental illness and have no sufficient proofs to support that! At least the court side gave more reasons showing why! Have you ever read about the reasons given by the court? Do you know what the court said about why they didn’t do the mental assessment (I translated some reasons they said in my previous post )?
To make me believe one thing is simple, prove it!
I’m not going to to believe anything because it is claimed a thousand times and not going to assume you did wrong this time because you did bad things in the past!
January 1st, 2010 at 6:32 pm
It has been interesting to see the various different opinions on this case. I would have to say that Mr Shaikh ran several business including a taxi company and it does not sound to me like he was in a situation where he didn’t know what he was doing. But I do admit I have not seen any evidence either way and IF the Chinese did not consider this then it is indeed a sad case.
But what I am sure of is that it is outrageous that the British government appear so appalled by this but they’re happy to hand over someone who HAS been proven to have autism to our best friends the United States to be tried for hacking in to military computers.
January 1st, 2010 at 9:39 pm
Oh come on WoAi, he ran several failed businesses and thought he was going to be a pop star. This was not some captain of industry. There are several witnesses with no personal ties to Akmal who will attest to his mental problems. Yes the UK is a hypocrite, but do you really think this was justice?
@jeffwho, You may have been using xxx’s as a joke, but lets not deny you are not able to speak openly on certain issues or use Twitter, or faceboook, or Youtube. Right? Don’t fool yourself. If you don’t think there is sufficient proof that this guy was mentally ill then you obviously are not very informed on this issue and I am not about to do your reading for you. On top of that, if you think 30 minutes was enough time to contemplate killing this guy then we really have nothing more to discuss.
January 3rd, 2010 at 12:58 pm
Here are the witness statements and the letter from Akmal’s Doctor in case anyone is unsure of Akmal’s mental health. Not sure if this link is accessible from China, but here goes.
http://www.reprieve.org.uk/2009_12_18_akmal_shaikh_new_evidence
January 3rd, 2010 at 6:53 pm
@Hopfrog – You’re quoting from the Reprieve website which is hardly impartial. They quote a Spanish photographer who says he thinks Akmal was mentally ill. A photographer with no medical qualifications whatsoever. Akmal was 53 years old. Is there any actual medical record of his alleged mental illness? That would be helpful. If I was about to be executed I guarantee you my family would find 10 “impartial” witnesses to say I was mentally ill if it would save my life.
Have you ever watched the audition stages of American Idol? Are all those contestants also mentally ill because they believe they are potential rock stars? Where do you draw the line?
If he was so mentally sick why was he not insitutionalised for his own safety? Surely it was just a matter of time before he would get in to some serious trouble if it’s true he had mental problems.
Sorry but I’m not being swayed by your “evidence”.
January 4th, 2010 at 9:31 am
These people were not sought out by the family to fabricate impartial witness statements. Some of them did not even know Akmal was incarcerated until his impending execution hit the world stage at which point they felt compelled to give written statements.
Are all the contestants on American Idol mentally ill because they believe they are potential rock stars? No. But I suppose if a 53 year old man showed up at the auditions singing off key about bunny rabbits and claimed to the judges that it was going to bring about world peace, I think they would come to that conclusion.
“If he was so mentally sick why was he not insitutionalised for his own safety?”. The world is full of mentally ill people roaming the streets who are neither incarcerated or under medical attention. In fact, Akmal was one of those people if you’ve read about his life in Poland.
I’m sorry that your not swayed by the evidence because its pretty clear.
January 4th, 2010 at 11:03 am
yes exactly. They saw the news and then made statements. I have not met the man but honestly if I thought I could have save his life I also would have made a statement to say I thought he was insane. Why wouldn’t I? But you are still suggesting that unqualified people can diagnose bi-polar disorder where no qualified doctor has been able to.
I know there are mentally ill people roaming the streets, (some of them are my clients!), but that’s a failure of the system isn’t it? If he was really delusional he should not have been allowed to roam freely for his own safety as well as others.
January 5th, 2010 at 10:49 am
Why would you make a false statement to save a man’s life that you do no know? You would make a false statement to save the life of a man who may have been an international drug smuggler? I am not proclaiming the man’s innocent or guilt, I am just saying that I do not feel he was given due process. Based on the information I have read, I have my own suspicions about what happened, but without a fair trial, I can’t really feel strongly about them. I do however feel strongly about the witness testimony being enough to warrant a formal evaluation.
I have never suggested that unqualified people can diagnose bi-polar disorder. I have only suggested that enough people have come forward with testimony to warrant that a qualified person conduct a formal evaluation. Do you feel every mentally ill individual roaming the streets has already been diagnosed by a physician?
Whether or not the mentally ill should be roaming the streets and whether it is a failure of the system is an entirely different topic. I happen to agree with you there, but its not really changing the facts in this case.
My goal in discussing this here and at other websites posting the story is not to win a debate or engage in a battle of wits. I just wish people would take the time to look into this case more before making the assumptions they are making and applauding this action. If you have read the information that is out there and come to the conclusion that he was not in need of a formal evaluation as part of a fair trial, then I will leave it at that. A pissing match between the two of us won’t move either of us forward.
January 5th, 2010 at 11:01 am
Sometimes in the interest of speed I leave out stuff which I hoped would be assumed, my bad. What I meant was, if I had come across Akmal at some stage, and I heard he was about to be executed, I would have at least considered making a statement if I thought it would save his life. It costs me nothing to say I thought he was not all there. I’m not getting on a plane to Urumqi to testify in Chinese court and risk perjury. That I would not be willing to do.
And for this reason, I am afraid I do not accept this as “evidence” that he must have been ill. It’s not impartial and independent.
My post was much more about the hypocritical actions of the British government as well as the manipulative nature of the media which often likes to deliberately stir up hatred towards China without presenting all the facts or by presenting something that hasn’t been proved as fact.
But for the record, I am saddened by his execution and I do agree that sufficient evaluation should be conducted before passing a judgement that ends someones life. So we agree on that at least.
January 7th, 2010 at 3:13 am
I am not against capital punishment, but executing some innocent soul (I mean it) for bringing in some heroine is utterly barbaric. China sucks. Do does U.K., the U.S., and most other countries in this world. All forms of drugs should be descriminalized. Why can’t people make sense of the Libertarian Party?