A British citizen convicted of drug smuggling was executed in China on Tuesday morning, despite international pleas for clemency, dpa reported.
Akmal Shaikh, 53, was executed at 10:30 am (0230 GMT) Tuesday in Urumqi, in China's western region of Xinjiang, the British embassy in Beijing confirmed.
It was the first execution of a European national in China in 50 years.
"The family express their grief at the Chinese decision to refuse mercy; thank all those who tried hard to bring about a different result," Shaikh's relatives said in a statement released after the execution by Reprieve, a British rights group.
The father of three was convicted of trafficking 4 kilograms of heroin in November 2008, but his family and campaigners say he was suffering from bipolar disorder, a mental illness, and was manipulated by a drug gang into smuggling the heroin.
Shortly before the execution, the supreme court in Beijing confirmed the decision.
"His behaviour constituted the crime of drug smuggling and the crime committed was extremely serious", the Supreme People's Court said, according to the official Xinhua news agency.
The British government had at the last minute again asked for clemency.
It was "not appropriate" for a man with a mental illness to be executed, British media quoted the Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Ivan Lewis as saying.
The number of people executed in China is not made public.
According to Amnesty International's latest annual report on the death penalty, at least 7,000 death sentences were handed down in China in 2008, with 1,700 executions having been carried out.
China accounted for 72 per cent of the world's executions - far more than any other country, an Amnesty spokesman said.
British national executed in China Eds: Updates with quotes, background
