British P.M. Monitors China's Death Penalty Sentence
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The U.K. government says Prime Minister Gordon Brown is taking a personal interest in the case of a British man who has been sentenced to death on drug trafficking charges in China.
Britain's Foreign Office says the prime minister has repeatedly raised the case of 53-year-old Akmal Shaikh with the Chinese leadership.
The Foreign Office says that Shaikh, a Londoner, was sentenced to death last year after reportedly being caught with almost 9 pounds of heroin in his suitcase by Chinese customs agents at the airport in the far western city of Urumqi.
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The Foreign Office says that an appeal has since been turned down and the case is now before the Supreme People's Court for review.