Vikram Dodd talks to Akbar Shaikh, brother of Akmal guardian.co.uk

British man condemned to die in China tomorrow morning has been told of his fate, campaigners confirmedtoday .

Akmal Shaikh, 53, who supporters say has a mental illness, is due to be executed at 10.30am local time for smuggling 4kg (8.8lb) of heroin, but was unaware of his death sentence until today.

Sally Rowen, legal director of the campaign group Reprieve, said Shaikh, who is in a secure hospital, had been told this morning. "The Chinese authorities had always said they would tell him 24 hours ahead," she said.

The family have filed a last-minute petition for a stay of execution and an application for special pardon to the supreme court, the Chinese president, Hu Jintao, and the standing committee of the People's National Congress, Rowen said, adding that there was still hope of a reprieve. She said: "Reprieves have been granted when people were literally on the way to their execution. Until we actually hear the reports that he has been executed, we are still hopeful that he won't."

Campaigners say Shaikh has bipolar disorder. There were two likely methods of execution, lethal injection or a single bullet, but as the former minicab operator from north London was being held in a hospital the former was more likely, she said.

Rowen confirmed that Shaikh's family had visited him for about an hour and a half and delivered written messages from other family members. "The whole family is finding it very stressful, and have become ill as a result," she said. "Tonight is going to be horrendous for them."

His daughter Leilla Horsnell said she was not optimistic that the petition would succeed, telling the BBC: "I'd like to be hopeful, but time just seems to be running out."

The Chinese have kept her father's fate from him until 24 hours before the scheduled execution on "humanitarian grounds". Horsnell said she thought this was a good thing "because I don't even think he would understand because we don't know how much his mental state has deteriorated."

She added: "We do know in one of the appeals he insisted on giving his own statements and he couldn't even speak properly, and what he was saying wasn't making much sense.

"And so I don't think him being told would mean anything ... if anything, it might make it worse if he was aware of what was happening."

His cousins Soohail and Nasir Shaikh, from London, flew from Beijing to Urumqi in north-west China yesterday. They joined two British embassy officials to deliver pleas for clemency to China's president and courts.

In his petition, Soohail says: "We plead for his life, asking that a full mental health evaluation be conducted to assess the impact of his mental illness, and that recognition be made that he is not as culpable as those who might, under Chinese law, be eligible for the death penalty."

Akbar Shaikh, Akmal's brother, also says in a letter from the family to Hu: "We plead for mercy and clemency. We are not asking for special treatment for Akmal because he is British, but simply as a family who are devastated at the possibility of losing our son, our brother, our father, our cousin."

Father-of-three Shaikh was arrested in Urumqi in September 2007 and charged with drug smuggling. After being convicted he lost a final appeal last week, but campaigners claim his mental illness has not been taken into account.

A vigil to raise awareness of his plight will take place in London today outside the Chinese embassy in central London.

The event is being organised by a group formed on Facebook called Stop The Execution Of Akmal Shaikh, which has more than 1,800 members.

A spokeswoman, Maya Farr, said: "Akmal's case has struck a chord with many people. We are appealing respectfully to the Chinese government to show mercy to Akmal, and spare his life.

"At the very least we believe there should be a stay of execution so that there can be a full assessment of his medical condition."

The group will deliver a letter to Chinese ambassador to the UK, Fu Ying, which reads: "We take the issue of drugs smuggling very seriously, but we believe there is considerable evidence that Akmal is mentally ill, and genuinely did not know that the suitcase he was duped into carrying contained drugs."

Clive Stafford Smith, the director of Reprieve, said: "I have been in constant contact with Akmal's family, and they are simply praying for a reprieve, fearing for the health of his mother, who is very frail."

If the sentence is carried out, it would be the first time an EU national has been executed in China for 50 years.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: "We have made representations at the highest possible levels. The prime minister wrote to the Chinese government on 21 December and the foreign secretary has also written.

"We have made our position to the Chinese authorities quite clear. The prime minister, ministers and other officials have been and remain closely engaged."

Rowen said the Foreign Office could "not have done more" over the Christmas period to help save Shaikh's life and had been working very closely with the organisation. "I applaud everything that they have done, and urge them to continue to push," she said.

A spokesman for the Chinese embassy in London said Shaikh was found with more than 4kg of heroin, which he said was enough to kill 26,800 people. He said that, according to Chinese law, being caught with 50g of heroin was enough for the death penalty to be applied.

"Even in the UK, he would be punished severely for his crime," the spokesman said. "Drug trafficking is a grave crime worldwide. China has the bitter memory of drug problems in history, and is still facing severe situations at this moment, which undermines the social stability. The general public has a deep-seated hatred toward it."

He added that British concerns "have been duly noted".

MDF, the Bipolar Organisation, said it had written to the Chinese ambassador to add its voice to pleas for clemency.

"Only too often, we hear stories of how the behaviour of people when very unwell with bipolar gets them into terrible difficulties," said Robert Westhead, a spokesman for the charity.

"This is sometimes just with friends, family or employers, but sometimes it's with the criminal justice system too. 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."