Drug smuggler to be executed on Monday
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Mitsunobu Akano, a Japanese citizen who was convicted of attempting to smuggle drugs from China to Japan in 2006, will be executed on Monday, official sources said.
The Consulate of Japan in Shenyang, capital of Northeast China's Liaoning Province, has received a letter from the Chinese government about Monday's execution, an official from the Japanese Embassy in China, who would not be named, told China Daily on Wednesday.
Embassy officials have also been told that another Japanese drug trafficker would be executed after Akano, but no further details are available.
If the convict is executed, it will be the first execution by China of a Japanese national since the two countries normalized diplomatic relations in 1972, according to Japanese government sources.
The 66-year-old Akano was arrested in September 2006 when he was meeting someone at an airport in Dalian of Liaoning, attempting to smuggle 2.5 kg of stimulant drugs to Japan.
In June 2008, the Dalian Intermediate People's Court handed down a death sentence on Akano. He appealed, but the sentence was finalized after the High People's Court of Liaoning upheld it in 2009.
The High People's Court of Liaoning declined to give any comment on Wednesday.
Eiji Kato, deputy counselor-general of the Consulate of Japan in Shenyang, on Wednesday confirmed with China Daily that Akano's execution had been scheduled, which he regretted.
"However, we understand that each country has the right to decide how to punish crimes according to their own situation and policy, and it is an internal issue of China," Kato said.
"Yet we have been communicating with China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs because we are concerned that the execution might hurt the feelings of our people," he said.
"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in a letter replying to our ambassador, emphasizes that China is very strict with drug smugglers," Kato said.
China's Criminal Law stipulates that people trafficking more than 50 grams of heroin can be given death sentences.
Last year a British drug smuggler was executed and received wide public attention from both China and Britain.
Akmal Shaikh, a 53-year-old British national, was executed by lethal injection last December in Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, after he was convicted of smuggling a large quantity of drugs into China.
Shaihk was caught carrying up to 4,030 grams of heroin at the Urumqi airport after arriving from Dushanbe, capital of Tajikistan, on Sept 12, 2007.
Crimes concerning drugs are universally recognized as serious criminal offenses and have a severe negative social impact, said a statement from China's Supreme People's Court, concerning the execution of Shaikh.
The statement said the general public in China and other countries demanded severe punishment for such crimes.
China's Criminal Law stipulates that everyone is equal before the law and no one is permitted to break the law, and that criminals should all be punished according to law regardless of their nationality.
