By Jane Luscombe
An Auckland psychologist has denounced the Chinese authorities for executing a British man, believed to be mentally ill.
UK foreign officials rushed Dr Peter Schaapveld to China to try to assess Akmal Ahaikh, but he was twice prevented from meeting the condemned man.
Akmal Shaikh was being held in a detention centre in North West China for smuggling heroin.
The Aucklander never got to carry out a face-to-face assessment of the Briton before he was executed, but he is convinced he was suffering a severe mental disorder.
Peter Schaapveld told ITV that Mr Shaik was probably going through a manic phase in which his ability to think rationally, control his impulses, and think through the consequences of his actions was severely compromised.
Mr Schaapveld trained in psychology at Auckland University, but now lives in the UK.
He was asked in March by the legal charity Reprieve to assess Mr Shaikh's mental state from written reports.
Then the British Foreign Office flew Mr Schaapveld to the jail in Urumqi to meet the prisoner.
Speaking to 3 News by phone, Mr Schaapveld said he tried to visit the 53-year-old twice. Each time he was turned away at the last minute.
He said, “In what appeared to be the reasons almost made up on the spot, which was curious given the fact that I was given the green light all the way from London to Urumqi."
China has signed up to United Nations protocols that call for clemency for anyone with a mental illness who is facing the death penalty.
But it refused to carry out an assessment of his mental state and chose to ignore pleas from the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
Instead, the Chinese were furious at interference from the west.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Jiang Yu, said no one has the right to interfere with the judicial sovereignty of China. Combating drug dealing is the common will of all people.
Mr Schaapveld spoke to Mr Shaikh's family after he was given a lethal injection yesterday.
He said, “It is, in their view, and I would share this, an absolutely appalling situation.”
Akmal Shaik was the first European to be executed by the Chinese in nearly 60 years.
3 News