British man said to be mentally ill executed in China

Such is the title of an article on the BBC website decrying the execution of a British national for smuggling drugs.

"The execution took place despite repeated calls from his family and the British government for clemency," bleats the BBC. There follows a set of, frankly, completely unbelievable excuses apparently invented by his family, as well as the claim that he was mentally ill. Quotes are also supplied from the British Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, who seem to believe that a British national should not have to suffer the same fate as, say, a Chinese national convicted of the same offense.

Oh come on! Just because British criminals can expect to be wilfully coddled by their courts (one of which recently ruled that an asylum seeker who had run over and killed a child in a driving accident while drunk could not be repatriated because it would breach his human rights), this does not mean that they can expect the same treatment from a country not yet mired in suicidal self-loathing.

No, to see at once the relevant facts of this case, just note that this man's name is Akmal Shaikh and that he was arrested in the city of Urumqi in possession of 4kg of heroin. Yes, that Urumqi, the one with the recent murderous muslim riots against the Han Chinese. The likelihood seems to be that this man was part of a criminal gang involved in smuggling drugs in order to finance jihad against the Chinese state.