British Drug Smuggler’s Death Sentence, Netizen Reactions | chinaSMACK
Recently, a British drug smuggler’s death sentence was upheld by the Supreme People’s Court in China. News on Xinhuanet.com:
Death penalty on British drug dealer in line with Chinese law: spokesman
BEIJING, Oct. 13 (Xinhua) — 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 Oct. 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 been 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.
So what do Chinese people think of the sentence online? A survey from Huanqiu.com shows that among the netizens who took the survey:
- 98.8% (3528 votes) support the Supreme People’s Court’s sentence;
- 96.7% (3737 votes) think the British media is interfering in China’s internal affairs.
In another survey that asks “What do you think of British media’s report on this incident”:
- 53.9% (1924 votes) think these reports show Britain still has an outdated colonial mindset;
- 30.1% (1074 votes) think the British media is using “human rights” as an excuse;
- 16.0% (569 votes) think they are sensationalizing this incident with malicious intentions.
English coverage can be found on Google News.
