London, Dec 29 (IANS) Britain reacted with fury Tuesday as China refused to heed pleas for pardon and executed a convicted Briton who is thought to be mentally ill.
Pakistan-born Akmal Shaikh, who was arrested at Urumqi airport in September 2007 for carrying four kg of heroin, became the first European to be executed by China in 50 years.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Foreign Secretary David Miliband led strong condemnations of the Chinese action, which came despite pleas that Shaikh was suffering from a form of bipolar disorder with delusions of pop stardom.

“I condemn the execution of Akmal Shaikh in the strongest terms, and am appalled and disappointed that our persistent requests for clemency have not been granted. I am particularly concerned that no mental health assessment was undertaken,” Brown said.

Miliband expressed outrage that “specific concerns about the individual in this case were not taken into consideration despite repeated calls by the Prime Minister, Ministerial colleagues and me. These included mental health issues, and inadequate professional interpretation during the trial”.

“This is not about how much we hate the drug trade. Britain as well as China are completely committed to take it on. The issue is whether Mr Shaikh has become an additional victim of it.”

The European Union had also repeatedly raised the same concerns.

Shaikh, 53-year-old father of three, was executed by lethal injection despite frantic last-minute pleas for clemency by the British foreign ministry.

Prime Minister Brown had personally raised the issue with the Chinese premier at the Copenhagen summit and the British foreign ministry later summoned the Chinese ambassador for what was described by the media a “diplomatic dressing down”.

The anti-death-penalty organisation Reprieve said it had medical evidence that Shaikh believed he was going to China in 2007 to record a hit single that would usher in world peace. It said he was duped into carrying a suitcase packed with heroin on a flight from Tajikistan to Urumqi.

But the ambassador claimed the Chinese judiciary was independent of the government and that the country’s supreme court had made its decision.