British drug trafficker subject to Chinese laws: experts
0 
As 53-year-old British drug trafficker Akmal Shaikh lost his final appeal against a death sentence last week, law experts in China have said the sentence is in line with Chinese laws despite opposition from the United Kingdom.
Shaikh's final verdict came after two failed appeals since last October when he was sentenced to death by the Intermediate People's Court of Urumqi, capital of northwestern China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, after he was caught to be carrying up to 4 kilograms of heroin at the local airport.
Wang Zhenmin, dean of the Law School of Tsinghua University in Beijing, told Xinhua that suspects who commit crimes on China's territory should be subject to the jurisdiction of Chinese laws.
China's Criminal Law stipulates that people trafficking more than 50 grams of heroin could be sentenced to death.
Ma Zhaoxu, spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Tuesday the case was being reviewed by the Supreme People's Court.
Some in the UK have called for Chinese courts to pardon Shaikh from death. The British embassy in China and a British organization had proposed a psychiatric assessment of him, Ma said.
But Shaikh himself had said there was no history of mental disorder in his family, according to Ma.
Ma said the court had guaranteed the defendant's rights by hiring interpreters and allowing him and his lawyer to put his case at the trials.
"Only evidence of mental instability could get Shaikh a reprieve from capital punishment," Wang said. "And the judgment should be made based on Chinese jurisdictional assessments, not on subjective opinions."
Huang Jingping, professor of criminal law at the Renmin University of China, said family medical history was important evidence in judging if a person had mental problems among other key factors such as the judicial judgment based on the suspect's behavior and his motives and ability to commit the crime.
"The courts must have made careful judgments if the initial verdict was upheld after more than one appeal," Huang said.
Jeremy Gray, a British executive of the American company Grace Construction Products, told Xinhua that he was personally against the death penalty, but he also understood that foreigners have to comply with local laws and accept the consequences if they break those laws.
British student Eugene Liu, who is studying law in Tsinghua University, said this was a matter of national legislature and if any jurisdictional issue arose, it should be handled legally without political influence.
Men Honghua, professor of international strategy studies in the Party School of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said China should ensure the justice of the verdict as well as explaining the issue to concerned parties.
But he believed it was unnecessary for China to alter the sentence just because of pressure from the British side.
Comments