China set to execute British man many say is mentally ill, despite international protests

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China set to execute Briton many say is unstable

URUMQI, China — China was set Tuesday to execute a Briton convicted of drug smuggling after rejecting a string of appeals from the British government and his relatives who say the man is mentally unstable and was unwittingly lured into the crime.

“I believe we have done everything we possibly can,” said Ivan Lewis, a Foreign Office minister, after meeting with the Chinese ambassador in London late Monday. “We urge at this very late stage the Chinese government to do the right thing.”

Akmal Shaikh, 53, would be the first European citizen to be executed in China in half a century.

Shaikh first learned of his death sentence Monday from his visiting cousins, who made a last-minute plea for his life. They say he is mentally unstable and was lured to China from a life on the street in Poland by men playing on his dreams to record a pop song for world peace.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown had spoken personally to China’s prime minister about his case, but a last-minute reprieve is not expected.

Shaikh was arrested in 2007 for carrying a suitcase with almost 9 pounds (4 kilograms) of heroin into China on a flight from Tajikistan. He told Chinese officials he didn’t know about the drugs and that the suitcase wasn’t his, according to Reprieve, a London-based prisoner advocacy that is helping with his case.

He was convicted in 2008 after a half-hour trial. In one court appearance during his trial and appeal process, the judges reportedly laughed at his rambling remarks.

The official Xinhua News Agency reported Tuesday that China’s Supreme People’s Court had approved the death sentence, but did not immediately give any details.

The execution was to have taken place at 0230 GMT Tuesday, but there was no immediate word on whether it had been carried out.

Shaikh’s cousin Nasir Shaikh said Tuesday morning that he had no news yet about Akhmal and was not sure if Chinese authorities would notify them if the execution takes place.

He also reiterated the family’s plea to China to stay the execution, citing concerns about his cousin’s mental health. Nasir said Akhmal asked him during a prison visit Monday whether he had been mentioned by Britain’s Queen Elizabeth in her Christmas Day speech.

“These do not seem like the kind of ramblings of a sane person fit to stand trial and ultimately receive a death sentence,” said Nasir Shaikh. “With maximum respect for the People’s Republic of China and for its laws and for its law institutions and its people, we make the submission that Akhmal be urgently granted a professional medical assessment before it is too late.”

Last-minute appeals are almost never granted in China, which executes more people each year than all other countries combined.

“Drug smuggling is a grave crime. The rights of the defendant have been fully guaranteed,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told a news conference last week.

It is not known how Shaikh, who is of Pakistani descent, will be executed. China, which executes more people than any other country, is increasingly doing so by lethal injection, although some death sentences are still carried out by a shot in the head.

The cousins were given a bag of Shaikh’s belongings Monday.

Two British diplomats accompanied the cousins but said they were not authorized to speak to journalists.

“The Prime Minister has intervened personally on a number of occasions: He has raised the case with Premier Wen (Jiabao), most recently at the Copenhagen summit; and has written several times to President Hu (Jintao),” said an e-mail from the British government.

In Beijing, British Embassy spokesman David Shaw said confirmation that the execution had been carried out would come from the Foreign Office in London.

Britain has accused Chinese officials of not taking Shaikh’s mental health concerns into account, with a proper psychiatric evaluation, as required by law.