Six unsavoury characters who had the same honour
PRESIDENT XI JINPING - October 2015.
DURING his state visit, protesters turned out in force with members of Amnesty International, pro-Tibet campaigners and followers of the banned Falun Gong spiritual practice.
KING ABDULLAH - October 2007.
SAUDI Arabia’s treatment of women and gays were highlighted during the state visit, with protests staged outside the Saudi embassy. Demonstrators also lined The Mall and shouted ‘shame on you’.
VLADIMIR PUTIN - June 2003.
THE Russian president’s visit was marked by protests against his repression of Chechen separatists. The visit happened three years before the London murder of dissident Alexander Litvinenko.
EMPEROR AKIHITO - May 1998.
THE Japanese emperor was met with hostility from British ex-prisoners of war
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who turned their backs as he and the Queen travelled down the Mall. The emperor later spoke of his ‘deep sorrow and pain’ over the Second World War, but stopped short of apologising.
ROBERT MUGABE - May 1994.
THE Zimbabwean dictator had a carriage procession to Buckingham Palace. Mugabe was made an Honorary Knight Grand Cross in the Order of the Bath during the visit. But he was later stripped of the honour.
NICOLAE CEAUSESCU - June 1978.
SHORTLY before the Romanian’s arrival, French President Valery Giscard D’Estaing phoned the Queen to warn that Ceausescu had walked off with valuables from their state rooms on a visit to Paris.