Death penalty on British drug dealer in line with Chinese law

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-10-13 23:29

BEIJING - Chinese court's sentence of death penalty on a British drug trafficker is in line with Chinese laws, said a spokesman for China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday.

Akmal Shaikh, 53, male, was sentenced to death in the first instance trial by the Intermediate People's Court of Urumqi Municipality in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on October 29, 2008, said Ma Zhaoxu, spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at a regular news briefing.

The case is currently being reviewed by China's Supreme People's Court, Ma said.

"All the procedures have been in line with relevant Chinese laws. During the trial, The accused and the counsel had freely exercised their rights of defense, and translation service had ben provided to the accused. His legal rights had been fully guaranteed," he said.

According to Ma, the British embassy in China and a British organization had proposed to organize mental disease examinations on Akmal Shaikh, while offering no evidence that he may be suffering from mental disease.

The accused had said that he and his family members had no history of mental diseases, Ma said.

The case is under examination, he said.