Human Rights - Death Penalty

Treatment of Aliens

Rejecting pleas for clemency from the British PM Gordon Brown and the accused's family and human rights groups, China executed Akmal Shaikh, a British national who smuggled nine pounds of heroin into Urumqi. His family and human rights advocates maintained that Akmal Shaikh suffered from "some form of delusional psychosis", while at the same time expressing complete faith in his sanity when he claimed that he was duped into carrying the heroin by a drug gang. Among the evidence that appeared to have convinced Her Majesty's Government of Akmal Shaikh's feeblemindedness was his song, promoting global harmony, that read in part, "Come, little rabbit, come and play/Come, little rabbit, let us sing”, which, one might say, appears perfectly likely to be part of a speech of Sarah Palin or Glenn Beck.

The Chiense Government, after making some ludicrous remarks on the matter before, contended that the case had been handled according to Chinese law, without explaining, however, why Chinese courts did not bother to give a psychiatric examination of Akmal Shaikh, which could have easily addressed most of the criticisms.