The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for electrochemical processing of heavy metal ion-containing wastewater by use of an activated carbon basket as an electrode. According to the method, by combination of physical adsorption concentration, electrochemical reduction adsorption and electrochemical catalytic oxidation, heavy metal ion-containing wastewater is processed, and copper, lead, zinc, iron, cobalt, nickel, manganese, cadmium, mercury, tungsten, molybdenum, and all other heavy metal pollutants in the wastewater can be effectively and thoroughly removed. The method not only can process wastewater containing a high concentration of heavy metal ions, is also suitable for processing wastewater containing extremely dilute concentrations of heavy metal ions (the concentration range is from 0 to hundreds of thousands of ppm), meanwhile compared with the traditional method, the method greatly reduces the processing cost, is inexpensive and simple in operation and equipment, can be recycled to run, and has great practical value.