Word: shaikh
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...self-imposed exile in London, beyond the reach of Pakistani authorities. And the army he left behind, whose political clout is undiminished, is unlikely to accept a potentially humiliating probe into one of its longest-serving commanders in chief. "No credible criminal investigation can proceed in Pakistan," says Farzana Shaikh, a senior Pakistan analyst at London's Royal Institute of International Affairs, "because that would mean going to the heart of the military and its intelligence arm. This is a weak civilian government. The military still calls the shots. That's the reality of Pakistan. Like many other murders...
...China carried out the execution of Akmal Shaikh, a British citizen convicted drug smuggling who became the first European to be executed by China in 58 years. The British government cried foul and protested on the grounds that the man was mentally ill and was not given a proper assessment of his condition during his trial. Many Chinese nationals see this incident and are proud that after half a century, China has finally grown enough of a spine to stand up to the Western imperial powers that defeated them in the Boxer Rebellion and the Opium Wars...
Amid an international outcry, China carried out the death sentence of a British man convicted of smuggling heroin into the western province of Xinjiang. London had sought clemency for Akmal Shaikh, 53, arguing that he was mentally ill and had been exploited by other smugglers. Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he was "appalled" by the Dec. 29 lethal injection, which Chinese officials defended as being in accordance with...
...past, the Chinese government has cited the need for deterrence and public support of the death penalty to justify its broad use of capital punishment. In online forums on Chinese websites, opinion over the Shaikh case tends to back the official stance. "We should stick to the Chinese law no matter what, instead of bending under the pressure from Western countries," wrote a commentator in a chat room on Tianya.com. "Otherwise, we would only damage the dignity of China's judicial system...
That's of little comfort to members of Shaikh's family. On Wednesday they expressed "grief at the Chinese decision to refuse mercy" and thanked "all those who tried hard to bring about a different result," according to a statement released by Reprieve. But China's willingness to at least discuss the death penalty offers the slim hope that in the future it will become less of a source of anger and dismay at home and abroad.- With reporting by Jessie Jiang / Beijing...