Family hit back at China over execution

THE family of an executed British man issued a bitter attack upon China yesterday as his cousins flew home after a failed attempt to plead for his life.

Akbar Shaikh, whose 53-year-old brother Akmal Shaikh was executed early yesterday morning, said they could “no longer remain silent” over claims made by the Chinese authorities.

Shaikh, who was convicted of heroin smuggling, was executed by lethal injection, in spite of pleas for clemency from human rights campaigners and the British government.