BEIJING: A Briton said to have serious mental health problems

was executed in China today for drug smuggling despite last-minute pleas for clemency, a move condemned by London, rights groups and his family.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he was “appalled and disappointed” by the execution of Akmal Shaikh, a 53-year-old father-of-three, who supporters say had bipolar disorder. His family expressed their grief and asked for privacy.

China confirmed the execution and defended its use of capital punishment as a deterrent, saying evidence

of Shaikh’s mental illness

was “insufficient”.

It also said it hoped London would not “create

new obstacles” to diplomatic ties. Shaikh is the first European national to be executed in China in 58 years, according to the London-based charity Reprieve, which had been providing him with legal counsel.

His case sparked condemnation from London and rights activists, who said

his illness should have

been a mitigating factor in his sentencing.

Reprieve said China

had ignored “overwhelming and unrebutted evidence” of his condition.

London had launched an 11th hour appeal for clemency, urging Beijing to “do the right thing” by halting the execution in Urumqi, the capital of China’s far-western Xinjiang region. But the execution was carried out by lethal injection, the state news agency Xinhua reported.

Brown vented his anger, saying in a statement issued in London: “I condemn

the execution of Akmal Shaikh in the strongest terms, and am appalled

and disappointed that our persistent requests for clemency have not been granted. “I am particularly concerned that no mental health assessment was

undertaken.”

Shaikh, from London, was arrested in September 2007 in Urumqi after arriving

from Tajikistan with four kg of heroin. Campaigners

say a criminal gang duped him into carrying the drugs into China.

He was sentenced to death in December 2008 and lost his final appeal earlier this year in China’s Supreme Court, officials say. Two of Shaikh’s cousins visited him in Urumqi on Monday and told him of his fate. Reprieve said it was the first time he had seen a family member in two years.

The family issued a short statement expressing

“grief at the Chinese decision to refuse mercy” and thanking Shaikh’s supporters, who created a Facebook group and staged a vigil in London on Monday.