Mentally ill Briton faces 'execution in days' in China

[oldironside]

"A mentally ill British man could be executed in China within days, after the country's foreign ministry said today his appeal against the death penalty for drug smuggling had been rejected.

Lawyers for Akmal Shaikh, a 53-year-old father of five from Kentish Town, north London, fear he may be shot imminently and without warning, despite the personal intervention of Gordon Brown in making representations for clemency to the Chinese authorities. His lawyers say he suffers from delusional psychosis and bipolar disorder and that he was set up by drug smugglers at the time of his arrest in 2007, while carrying heroin in a suitcase.

Shaikh's case will go through one last legal stage, a hearing before the People's supreme court, before the sentence can be carried out. The court's hearings are swift and often largely procedural, according to Reprieve, the anti-death penalty legal charity representing Shaikh.

Clive Stafford Smith, Reprieve's director, described the situation as "a very dire moment". "Mr Shaikh's British passport promises him 'such protection and assistance as may be necessary'. It is crucial that the British government ... formally intervene in the Chinese supreme court to get him a fair hearing."

The Foreign Office said the government was "greatly concerned to hear that the death sentence has been maintained", adding it had "already made representations to the Chinese authorities at the highest levels; representations continue in both China and London. The prime minister has taken a personal interest in the case and has raised it several times with the Chinese leadership."

The actor Stephen Fry, who suffers from bipolar disorder, recorded a statement of support yesterday, calling Shaikh's sentence "manifestly unfair".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct/13/mentally-ill-briton-china-execution