Reply to comment

THE execution of Akmal Shaikh – the Kentish Town minicab driver caught with a suitcase of heroin in China – has sparked a fractious row in the south of the borough between election rivals.
Holborn and St Pancras MP Frank Dobson labelled the Chinese authorities “vile” for carrying out the death sentence on a man thought to be suffering from mental health illness.
But in a personal attack on the long-serving MP, Conservative election challenger George Lee – who was born in Hong Kong – said Mr Dobson should butt out and let China deal with drug traffickers how they see fit.
Mr Shaikh, who used to run Teksi Taxis in Fortess Road, Kentish Town, was given a lethal injection in China on Tuesday morning, despite appeals from the British government for clemency.
He spent two years in a Chinese jail after being found entering the country with four kilos of heroin.
His relatives and supporters say he was fooled into smuggling the drugs by criminals who preyed on his vulnerable mental state.
Both Mr Dobson and Mr Lee were contacted by campaigners calling for Mr Shaikh to be reprieved. Mr Dobson contacted senior British government officials while Mr Lee spoke to the Chinese ambassador in London.
But in the aftermath of his death, the pair have clashed, with Mr Lee clearly furious at Mr Dobson’s decision not to mince his words about the Chinese authorities.
While Mr Dobson ­criticised the “tyranny of China”, Mr Lee said it was drugs that are “vile” and it was “good for China to have such strong laws on drug trafficking”.
The case has escalated into an international dispute with Prime Minister Gordon Brown and cabinet members attacking their Chinese counterparts – and strong words being thrown back in return.
China’s judiciary does not believe Mr Shaikh was unwell at the time of the trial and refused any fresh psychiatric assessment before he was executed, despite criticism that it was failing in its basic human rights responsibilities.
Mr Dobson, who was contacted by the family nine months ago, said: “It was plain as plain can be that he could not be regarded as in his right mind or be held responsible for what he says or does. But that’s the tyranny of China. If a tyrant leader decides to save someone’s life then it is saved. If they decide not to, they are not. This is how it has been handled. I do regard it [China] as a vile regime and this is further confirmation of that.”
Mr Lee, who won a Home Office scholarship to study Chinese politics at Trinity College Cambridge, and later became a high ranking officer for the Metropolitan Police, said: “What Mr Dobson said is outrageous. Mr Dobson is a left-wing socialist – he wanted this kind of dictatorship as a student and supporter of Mao in the 1970s.”
Mr Lee, whose poster appears in the windows of Chinese restaurants across the constituency, said: “I’m against capital punishment. But I have worked as a policeman in China and I think drugs are vile. There are 1.5 billion people in China – they have been running the country for 5,000 years and doing quite well. They think, ‘who is the West to tell China how to run its drugs policy?’ The western way of doing things is not necessarily the right way.”
He added: “China is not as rough as London. There are no yobs spitting in your face or going round with hoods. There is nothing like the anti-social behaviour.
“I was asked to help and so I did what I could. But Gordon Brown is an idiot. He was clearly privately asking for a favour from China but at the same time publicly condemning them at Copenhagen [climate change summit]. That has really annoyed the Chinese and it did not help at all.”
In a statement this week, Mr Brown said he was “appalled and disappointed”. Clive Stafford Smith, from the human rights group Reprieve, called the events “simply disgusting”.
But a spokesman for the Chinese embassy in London said: “It is important that the independence of the Chinese judiciary be respected. As for his possible mental illness, which has been much talked about, there apparently has been no previous medical record.”
He added that four kilograms of heroin – estimated to have a street value in the UK of around £250,000 – would have “threatened numerous families”.
Mr Shaikh sent hundreds of emails to global news agencies and politicians and, according to fresh evidence secured by Reprieve, entertained a series of delusions of grandeur including setting up an airline in Poland and becoming a pop star. The father-of-five thought he could promote world peace with a song about rabbits.
Members of Mr Shaikh’s family and supporters staged a candle-lit vigil opposite the Chinese embassy in Portland Place, Marylebone, on Monday night, while on the other side of the world Mr Shaikh was learning there would be no last-minute reprieve.
A statement from Mr Shaikh’s family said: “The family express their grief at the Chinese decision to refuse mercy; thank all those who tried hard to bring about a different result – including Reprieve, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, those who attended the vigil, and the organisers of the Facebook group who garnered more than 5,000 members in a few short days.”
EXCLUSIVE by TOM FOOT