12 October 2009 :

a British man believed to suffering from mental illness lost a second appeal against a drug trafficking conviction in China. Akmal Shaikh, 53, from north London, was duped into carrying a suitcase found to contain £250,000 worth of heroin in the north-western city of Urumqi. Shaikh was sentenced to death in 2007, although the British government was not told until almost a year later, in November 2008.