Have Your Say on the Execution of Akmal Shaikh

Nothing like the tragic and inhuman execution of a mentally ill man over drugs offences to bring out the very worst of people. On the BBC Have Your Say website, of course.

First up is david garner:

It may seem harsh but I suspect that it will deter others from doing this. If we had this in the uk I expect that drug smuggling would decline at an interesting rate. Heroin brings nothing but misery to the families and those who are addicted - a thought for them!

Yes, this will deter other people from becoming drug dealers. Just as it deterred this poor fella. And just as the death penalty in the US for murder has stopped murders happening there. Oh, wait...

Stephen has some comments he, for reasons that defy understanding, felt he should share with the world:

Given the devastating consequences wreaked by drug dealing all over the globe, the ruination of individuals and families, the cause of an enormous amount of criminal activity, not least murder, the immeasureable damage to communities, and the cost to the public purse - the punishment should be of the severest kind: execution without a shadow of a doubt!

I think Stephen gets a little hard when he talks about executions.

Bernard is looking for the silver lining to the cloud of Chinese executions:

At least China have the decency to execute criminals quickly after conviction. Unlike the USA who let them rot for decades in jail and then execute them when an election is due.

God, yes, that does seem like the decent thing to do - if you're going to put someone to death, then for God's sake do it quickly. If nothing else, then it can prevent any thought or reflection that might result in a state not killing a mentally ill man. And we couldn't have that now, could we?

Rick from Hong Kong has a deeply tedious addition to the debate:

Think of how many lives that could/would have been ruined by this mans drugs. I know the death penalty is extreme but it is needed to stop other people from threatening the lives of the people. How many thousands of people die from (illegal) drug related illnesses?

I think that the UK government could learn a lesson here.

Yes, but given the teaching here is "it is ok to murder mentally ill people" I kind of don't want the British government to learn the lesson here.

Mick Waite has a list of people he wants to kill:

It all boils down to the first thing you're taught in primary school when someone retaliates. "Two wrongs don't make a right." Even if he knew what he was doing was wrong, he, like everyone else on death row in the world does not deserve to die.

Will, England

Will,
There are MANY people in this world who DO deserve to die.
Terrorists, Child rapists, serial killers, Drug and People trafficers,are just a few that deserve to loose their lives.
I hope your never a victim of these people.

Personally, I would execute people who can't tell the difference between "your" and "you're". No-one listens to me, fortunately. Just as - mercifully, and hopefully in perpetuity - no-one listens to Mick Waite.

Besides, Mick Waite just can't quite match the vitriol of one Michael Lloyd:

Yet another so-called "British" citizen dragging the name of this country through the international mud. I fully agree with China on this one, and the sooner we in this country do the same the better. Either we want to eliminate drug dealing, or we don't. These peddlers in death deserve death themselves. Let's hear a lot less from the bleeding heart brigade.

Here's a thought, we could eliminate drug dealing by legalising drugs. But I guess that would make me part of the "bleeding heart brigade" that Lloyd wishes to silence. See, that's the distinction between Lloyd and other, lesser Have Your Say ravers - Lloyd not only wants drug dealers to be executed, but he also wants everyone who might disagree with him to shut the hell up. That is proper, unthinking fascist rage here. Magic.

Finally - mainly because I can't cope with much more - we have Kaz, who has insights into mental illness that are ground-breaking in their stultifying ignorance:

Whether he was took drugs to China deliberately or not is now a moot point. If the law is death for drug smuggling, then so be it. If, as the family claim, this man was bi-polar and had mental issues, do they not have some responsibility for his care? What on earth possessed them to let him travel the world on his own if he was in such a vulnerable state.

Rest assured, members of Kaz's family, if you ever suffer from mental illness, she will be there for you. Probably by having you locked up in hospital or sealing you in the attic. But rest assured, she'll do it because she is responsible. And she cares.

It dents my faith in humanity that the Chinese would execute someone with mental illness. What really kills my faith in humanity - what bashes it in the head and then pisses on it as it lies broken in the gutter - is this sort of pig ignorance from people who see drugs as evil, executions as good and mental illness as something to be deeply suspicious of.