Relatives of Briton executed in China slam media, government

LONDON - Relatives of a Briton executed by China Wednesday blamed the British media, government and human rights campaigners for not pleading his case early or strongly enough.

This is an example of Britain’s powerlessness in the world, said Amina and Ridwan Shaikh, whose cousin Akmal Shaikh was executed by China Tuesday after being found guilty of drug smuggling.

They said they were shocked that apart from Sky News, there was only sporadic media attention paid to Shaikh, widely considered to have been a mentally unstable man who was duped into carrying four kg of heroin into Urumqi.

Only when news was released of his imminent execution did it get the coverage it deserved, they said in a letter to The Guardian.

The relatives also slammed the British government and the anti-capital punishment charity Reprieve for not pursuing a hard enough strategy against China.

We understand the [Reprieve] strategy was based on expert advice that, as the Chinese regime is a brutal one, the best approach is to not criticise it as this may make things worse, they said.

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?

The Foreign Office minister Ivan Lewis has said that as well as official representations, ministers made 27 separate appeals on Shaikh’s behalf in the two years since his arrest.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown personally pleaded Shaikh’s case with Chinese Premier Hu Jintao at Copenhagen earlier in December.

Lewis said: “Engagement with China is non-negotiable and any alternative strategy is simply not credible. But by being so clear in our public criticism of China’s handling of this case we are demonstrating that it is not business as usual.”

Amina and Ridwan Sheikh also implied that their cousin suffered his fate in part because he was a Muslim.

We are not mourning simply for our cousin as a lot of other people, including Muslims in China, have experienced and will continue to experience the same fate, without any real justification; our hearts pour out to them too, they said.