By Alex Deane of Big Brother Watch.
Over the Christmas period, many civil liberties organisations have joined in the condemnation of China for executing Akmal Shaikh. The Government has, in the popular mode, "slammed" this decision and spoken tough words to the Chinese (although their attempts to suggest that the work of the officials of the Foreign Office in this case can be claimed as their own, or that those efforts represent all that could have been done politically in this case, won't really wash). I wanted to provide an alternative point of view from Big Brother Watch.
I want first of all to suggest that this ex post facto public condemnation from the Government should be contrasted with their decision in the case of the autistic hacker Gary McKinnon, not to block his extradition to the USA. If there is a difference in the cases, what is it?Secondly, and perhaps more controversially, I want to question the idea that we ought to interfere in the legal affairs of other nations because a British national is involved. Both of these cases are poor test cases of that logic given the respective mental health issues of the defendants involved, but many people seem to think that British citizenship entitles you to different treatment when charged with serious criminal offences in other countries and I just don't see why that holds water. I even question why it should change things when the death penalty is applied to British citizens convicted of offences in other countries.
I oppose the death penalty. I would wish that all countries which currently practice it to stop doing so. But it is on the statute books of democratic countries with which we are allied (the USA, Japan) as well as China and other countries, often reflecting the popular will of those countries for serious crimes and, of course, invoked only after a trial, conviction and any relevant appeals process.
I accept of course that Akmal Shaikh may be a special case given the claims his family makes about his mental health, and the further apparent failure of the Chinese to investigate that point. But he was charged with and convicted of a serious crime in a country whose justice system we supposedly generally respect and attacking such judicial acts per se is without any basis but an emotional one.
I fear that making massive noises about such cases simply because a British person is involved undermines civil liberties campaigns and campaigners - because it's illogical.
