Executed man's family slam Britain

Dec 30 2009

Relatives of Akmal Shaikh have said the Government's failure to prevent his execution in China showed Britain's "powerlessness in the world".

The criticism came as a diplomatic war of words broke out between London and Beijing over the execution of convicted drug smuggler Shaikh, who is believed to have suffered from bipolar disorder.

Shaikh, a British citizen, was killed by lethal injection early on Tuesday despite pleas for his mental health to be considered.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who had telephoned Chinese premier Wen Jiabao to urge him to halt the execution, said he was "appalled and disappointed" at the failure to grant clemency.

Chinese officials in both capitals hit back with an insistence that Shaikh had "no previous medical record" of mental illness and a warning not to meddle in China's judicial affairs.

Some 27 separate representations were made at ministerial level on Shaikh's behalf to the Chinese authorities as intense efforts were made to spare his life.

But in a letter to a newspaper, his cousins Amina and Ridwan Shaikh said the British government had shrunk from confronting China over the case prior to the execution because of fears it could harm the UK's economic interests in the country.

"Britain's economic dependence far outweighs these 'individual cases'," they wrote.

The letter continued: "Did the British government pull out its diplomats in protest? Did it have a hard-hitting strategy to persuade the Chinese authorities to change their decision?

"This is an example of Britain's powerlessness in the world."