Chinese court sentences Canadian man to death in drug smuggling case
Posted January 14, 2019 5:16 am.
Last Updated January 14, 2019 3:21 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
BEIJING (NEWS 1130) – Canada’s prime minister is expressing the country’s deep concern after a Canadian was sentenced to death by a Chinese court for drug smuggling.
“It is of extreme concern to us as a government, as it should be to all our international friends and allies, that China has chosen to begin to arbitrarily apply the death penalty in cases as in this case facing a Canadian,” Justin Trudeau told reporters on Monday.
A Chinese court sentenced Robert Lloyd Schellenberg to death Monday evening in a sudden retrial in a drug smuggling case that is likely to escalate tensions between the countries over the arrest of a top Chinese technology executive in Vancouver last month.
The court in northeastern Liaoning province announced that it had given Schellenberg the death penalty after rejecting his plea of innocence and convicting him of being an accessory to drug smuggling.
It gave no indication that the penalty could be commuted, but Schellenberg’s fate could become intertwined in diplomatic negotiations over China’s demand for Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou, who was arrested at Vancouver International Airport on Dec. 1 at the request of the United States, who said she was wanted on fraud charges related to trading with Iran.
Schellenberg was detained more than four years ago and initially sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2016. But suddenly last month, an appeals court agreed with prosecutors who said the sentence was too lenient, and scheduled Monday’s retrial with just four days’ notice.
Schellenberg’s lawyer, Zhang Dongshuo, said his client now has 10 days to appeal.
The court said it ruled Monday that Schellenberg was involved in an international drug smuggling operation. It said he was recruited to help smuggle more than 222 kilograms of methamphetamine from a warehouse in Dalian city to Australia. A Chinese person convicted of involvement in the same operation was earlier given a suspended death sentence.
The Chinese press began publicizing Schellenberg’s case last month following Meng’s detention. Since then, China has arrested two Canadians in apparent retaliation.
Both Michael Kovrig, a former diplomat, and Michael Spavor, a businessman, were arrested on suspicion of endangering national security. A Canadian teacher was detained but released.
Fifty people, including Canadian diplomats and foreign and domestic media, attended Monday’s trial, the court said in an online statement.
In 2009, China executed a Briton, Akmal Shaikh, on charges of smuggling heroin despite his supporters’ protest that he was mentally ill.
