Mentally ill Briton could be executed on Tuesday

[Alt+F4]

Yikes, now rambling e-mails means a person is mentally ill?

Dr. Peter Schaapveld traveled to Urumqi earlier this year for Shaikh's appeal hearing but was unable to meet Shaikh or attend the appeal. He said British consular staff told him court officials had been "bemused and amused" by Shaikh's "incoherent" testimony.

Schaapveld also examined hundreds of pages of rambling e-mails sent by Shaikh to the British embassy in Poland and various public figures including then-U.S. President George W. Bush and singer Paul McCartney.

He said the evidence "very clearly" suggested Shaikh was "probably suffering from bipolar disorder and may also have an additional delusional psychosis."

How can it be "very clear" that something is "probable"?

Link:

http://news.yottos.com/ShowNews/China_defends_case_against_Briton_facing_execution_22-12-2009

 

[Undesired Walrus]

Just a hunch.

Which isn't encouraged on a skeptic's forum.

Anyway, what I would think about their hypothetical conclusion wouldn't matter. What would matter would be a professional mental health evaluation.

 

[Undesired Walrus]

All Mr. Shaikh's supporters seem to have is people who said his behavior was strange, which doesn't make him mentally ill.

No. But I think most of his supporters at least wanted an evaluation to be carried out to determine this.

 

[Ryokan]

The Turks are also rather harsh in re drug sentences, compared to the US or the UK, though I don't recall whether or not they are using the death penalty.

Turkey, as a modern and civil country, has abolished the death penalty..

 

[Darth Rotor]

Turkey {bait removed} has abolished the death penalty..

Thank you for bringing me up to date. Suspect it was done to get into the EU, but I'd have to look that up.

DR

 

[Alt+F4]

No. But I think most of his supporters at least wanted an evaluation to be carried out to determine this.

Well considering the recent al-Megrahi debacle, I can understand the Chinese not trusting a British medical "expert". I doubt Mr. Shaikh's supporters would have believed a report from a Chinese psychiatrist either.

As far as I can tell, Chinese law does not require an independent psychiatric evaluation of prisoners facing the death penalty. So what we end up with is Mr. Shikh's history before the arrest - no mental illness.

I find it disturbing that someone can be labeled "mentally ill" just because others find their behavior odd or strange, or to advance a political agenda. I understand that the anti-death penalty people were doing what they felt was necessary to try and save Mr. Shaikh's life, but asserting that someone is mentally ill without any evidence does nothing to advance justice or the understanding of real mental illness.

 

[Darth Rotor]

I find it disturbing that someone can be labeled "mentally ill" just because others find their behavior odd or strange, or to advance a political agenda.

Yes. I hear there was a union of socialist republics that used to apply mental illness diagnoses to political undesirables ... Siberia is thus full of crazies now, of course.

I understand that the anti-death penalty people were doing what they felt was necessary to try and save Mr. Shaikh's life, but asserting that someone is mentally ill without any evidence does nothing to advance justice or the understanding of real mental illness.

I am not very crazy, and I endorse this observation.

DR

 

[Vic Vega]

Well, when the Chinese hand down a death sentence, they apparently don't jack (rabbit) around.

They don't kid around about the death penaly, that's for sure. They actually have mobile execution chambers. Seriously.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-06-14-death-van_x.htm

 

[The Central Scrutinizer]

Which isn't encouraged on a skeptic's forum.

Nor is claiming he was mentally ill, given that you have no way of knowing. You did notice your thread title, didn't you?

 

[I Ratant]

He dead.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/dec/29/akmal-shaikh-final-hours-china

 

[Alt+F4]

He dead.

Yes, we've known that since post 41.

 

[The Central Scrutinizer]

He dead.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/dec/29/akmal-shaikh-final-hours-china

I think we knew that 49 posts ago.

 

[I Ratant]

Knowing a few sufferers of bipolar disorder, they are cognizant of right and wrong.
Killing another drug smuggler doesn't bother me at all.

 

[Architect]

Well considering the recent al-Megrahi debacle, I can understand the Chinese not trusting a British medical "expert".

That'll be the same Megrahi whose cancer is apparently now extremely bad. But do feel free to take a stroll over to the appropriate thread and propound your theory.

 

[Alt+F4]

That'll be the same Megrahi whose cancer is apparently now extremely bad. But do feel free to take a stroll over to the appropriate thread and propound your theory.

Yeah, the guy that's been about to die of cancer any day now since at least mid 2008. I don't need to propound my theory, the fact he's still alive says it all.

 

[Undesired Walrus]

Thank you for bringing me up to date. Suspect it was done to get into the EU, but I'd have to look that up.

DR

You'd be very right.

 

[Undesired Walrus]

Nor is claiming he was mentally ill, given that you have no way of knowing. You did notice your thread title, didn't you?

Yes, I recognise that was a mistake.

 

[Undesired Walrus]

Knowing a few sufferers of bipolar disorder, they are cognizant of right and wrong.

The bipolar charity MDF has a more detailed analysis.

Robert Westhead, spokesman for the mental health charity MDF The Bipolar Organisation, said: "This type of bizarre behaviour will sound only too painfully familiar to sufferers from this condition and their loved ones.

"Normally at worst it results in people losing their jobs or destroying friendships and deeply embarrassing themselves.

"However, when people are ill like this they are clearly highly vulnerable to being taken advantage of."

Mr Westhead added: "When manic - or high - people often completely lose touch with reality, sometimes experiencing delusions of grandeur and fantastical beliefs about their own abilities.

"This leads them to do extraordinary things they would never contemplate when well.

"For example, someone might quit their job thinking they were about to become a famous novelist or even believe they were the Prime Minister or a top businessman.

"It is easy to see how these sorts of beliefs can result in people getting into terrible trouble, sometimes with the police."

Mr Westhead said bipolar disorder "suspends your normal critical faculties" which may have led to Shaikh making an error of judgment which he would not have made if well.

 

[scissorhands]

So due to his manic depression/bipolar disorder, he was optimistic about not getting caught trafficking 4kg of heroin into China?
Drug smugglers around the world are, by their very nature, "optimistic" about not getting caught.

Are they all "overly optimistic" too and therefore could be considered mentally ill?

What makes him special?

 

[Rolfe]

Yeah, the guy that's been about to die of cancer any day now since at least mid 2008. I don't need to propound my theory, the fact he's still alive says it all.

My God, can it get any more tasteless? Hovering over a cancer victim complaining that he isn't dying quickly enough?

He was only diagnosed in September 2008.

Rolfe.