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| Family visit death row Briton in China Daughter of Akmal Shaikh, who is due to be executed tomorrow in north-west China, says time is running out for her fatherThe family of a British man condemned to die in China tomorrow morning have visited him and made a last-minute appeal for mercy.Two cousins of Akmal Shaikh, 53, from Kentish Town in north London, gave him messages from the rest of the family. He is in a secure hospital and due to be executed tomorrow at 10.30am local time after being convicted of smuggling 4kg (8.8lb) of heroin.His daughter Leilla Horsnell said today she was not optimistic that the petition would succeed.She told the BBC: "I'd like to be hopeful, but time just seems to be running out."Shaikh, who campaigners say has bipolar disorder, will apparently only discover today that he is being executed, as the Chinese have kept his fate quiet from him until 24 hours before it happens on "humanitarian grounds".Horsnell said she thought this was a good thing "because I don't even think he would understand because we don't know how much his mental state has deteriorated".She added: "We do know in one of the appeals he insisted on giving his own statements and he couldn't even speak properly, and what he was saying wasn't making much sense. And so I don't think him being told would mean anything ... if anything, it might make it worse if he was aware of what was happening."His cousins Soohail and Nasir Shaikh, from London, flew from Beijing to Urumqi in north-west China yesterday. They joined two British embassy officials to deliver pleas for clemency to the country's president, Hu Jintao, and courts.Sally Rowen, legal director of charity Reprieve, which helped arrange visas for the cousins, confirmed they had been able to meet Shaikh – the first family members to have face-to-face contact with him in two years."I do know that they managed to meet with him," she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "I know that they were carrying messages from a lot of the family back here in the UK so those will have been delivered and I'm sure that will be some comfort to the family members here."Rowen sounded a hopeful note on the prospects for averting the execution."China does have a history of granting reprieves right at the last minute, people actually waiting to be executed and reprieves have come through. So there is no reason to think that may not happen here," she said.In his petition, Soohail says: "We plead for his life, asking that a full mental health evaluation be conducted to assess the impact of his mental illness, and that recognition be made that he is not as culpable as those who might, under Chinese law, be eligible for the death penalty."Akbar Shaikh, Akmal's brother, also says in a letter from the family to Hu: "We plead for mercy and clemency. We are not asking for special treatment for Akmal because he is British, but simply as a family who are devastated at the possibility of losing our son, our brother, our father, our cousin."Shaikh was arrested in Urumqi in September 2007 and charged with drug smuggling. After being convicted he lost a final appeal last week, but campaigners claim his mental illness had not been taken into account.A vigil to raise awareness of his plight will take place in London today outside the Chinese embassy in central London.The candlelit event is being organised by a group formed on Facebook called Stop the Execution of Akmal Shaikh, which has more than 1,600 members.A spokeswoman, Maya Farr, said: "Akmal's case has struck a chord with many people. We are appealing respectfully to the Chinese government to show mercy to Akmal, and spare his life."At the very least we believe there should be a stay of execution so that there can be a full assessment of his medical condition."The group will deliver a letter to Chinese ambassador in the UK, Fu Ying, which reads: "We take the issue of drugs smuggling very seriously, but we believe there is considerable evidence that Akmal is mentally ill, and genuinely did not know that the suitcase he was duped into carrying contained drugs."Clive Stafford Smith, the director of Reprieve, said: "I have been in constant contact with Akmal's family, and they are simply praying for a reprieve, fearing for the health of his mother, who is very frail."If the sentence is carried out, it would be the first time an EU national has been executed in China for 50 years.A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: "We have made representations at the highest possible levels. The prime minister wrote to the Chinese government on 21 December and the foreign secretary has also written."We have made our position to the Chinese authorities quite clear. The prime minister, ministers and other officials have been and remain closely engaged."A spokesman for the Chinese embassy in London said Shaikh was found with more than 4kg of heroin, which he said was enough to kill 26,800 people.The spokesman said that, according to Chinese law, being caught with 50g of the drug warranted the death penalty."Even in the UK, he would be punished severely for his crime," he said. "Drug trafficking is a grave crime worldwide. China has the bitter memory of drug problems in history, and is still facing severe situations at this moment, which undermines the social stability. The general public has a deep-seated hatred toward it."He added that British concerns "have been duly noted".MDF, the Bipolar Organisation, said it had written to the Chinese ambassador to add its voice to pleas for clemency."Only too often, we hear stories of how the behaviour of people when very unwell with bipolar gets them into terrible difficulties," said Robert Westhead, a spokesman for the charity."This is sometimes just with friends, family or employers, but sometimes it's with the criminal justice system too. When manic – or 'high' – people often completely lose touch with reality, sometimes experiencing delusions of grandeur and fantastical beliefs about their own abilities. This leads them to do extraordinary things they would never contemplate when well."Capital punishmentChinaMental healthBipolar disorderguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
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