British citizen faces execution
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Beijing Tuesday refused London's last-minute attempt to save a British man reportedly to be executed next week for drug trafficking, a stance analysts said shows China's determination not to bow to foreign political pressure in domestic legal matters.
British media reported that China has confirmed it will move ahead with the execution of Akmal Shaikh next Tuesday, December 29. But the Chinese authorities have not publicized the date, neither have Shaikh's lawyers been notified about the final decision.
"The case has been handled fairly according to relevant Chinese laws. Drug trafficking is a very serious crime internationally," foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told a regular press conference Tuesday in Beijing.
"The accused had freely exercised their rights of defense during the trial, and his legal rights were fully guaranteed," she said.
Akmal Shaikh, 53, a former cab firm manager from north London, was arrested in September 2007 in Urumqi, in China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, with a suitcase containing four kilograms of heroin, according to the Xinhua News Agency.
He was sentenced to death in his first trial by the Intermediate People's Court of Urumqi on October 29 last year. British lawyers and diplomats have appealed for the sentence to be commuted, but the court dismissed the appeal.
Shaikh will be the first European Union national to be executed in China in 50 years if the sentence is carried out, the British legal charity Reprieve said.
Reprieve says Shaikh suffers from bipolar disorder, a mental condition characterized by episodes of mania and depression.
The charity said Shaikh was duped by an international drugs gang in Poland, which promised to help him record a hit single in China and asked him to carry a suitcase for them.
The British embassy in Beijing declined to comment on the matter Tuesday.
But Britain's Foreign Office was quoted by the BBC on Monday as saying it "deeply regrets" that mental health concerns have no bearing on the final judgment in turning down his appeal.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown pressed Chinese premier Wen Jiabao in a telephone call earlier this month, AFP reported Tuesday. No concession has been shown on the Chinese side so far.
