Chinese court sentences Canadian to death for drug smuggling

Last edited Mon Jan 14, 2019, 11:48 AM - Edit history (1)

Source: Reuters

BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese court on Monday sentenced a Canadian man to death for drug smuggling, a ruling sure to aggravate already sour relations between Beijing and Ottawa following the arrest of a senior Chinese executive in Canada.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau condemned the decision. “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 ... as in this case,” he told reporters in Ottawa.

The Dalian Intermediate People’s Court in China’s northeast province of Liaoning re-tried Robert Lloyd Schellenberg, who had appealed against his original 15-year sentence, and decided on execution, the court said in a statement on its website.

The ruling will further strain an already tense relationship with Canada in the wake of the Dec. 1 arrest in Vancouver of Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of the Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies Co Ltd [HWT.UL], at the request of the United States.

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WORLD NEWS JANUARY 14, 2019 / 8:01 AM / UPDATED 28 MINUTES AGO
Philip Wen, Christian Shepherd
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Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-canada/canadian-sentenced-to-death-in-china-for-drug-smuggling-idUSKCN1P81E4

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Source: Washington Post

China sentences Canadian man to death in drug case linked to Huawei row

By Gerry Shih January 14 at 10:02 AM

BEIJING — A Chinese court issued the death penalty on Monday in the retrial of a convicted Canadian drug trafficker, a sentence that is expected to sharply escalate China’s diplomatic row with Canada and the United States.

Robert Lloyd Schellenberg’s new sentence comes after an appeals court this month sided with prosecutors, who argued that his original sentence of 15 years was too light given new evidence implicating the 36-year old Vancouver native’s role in an organized drug trafficking operation.

The case has been condemned by Western legal experts and Schellenberg’s relatives, who say China is using Schellenberg as a bargaining chip in its efforts to free a top technology executive whose detention in Canada infuriated the Chinese government.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday made his strongest-yet comment on the matter, expressing “extreme concern” over the case.

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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/china-sentences-canadian-man-to-death-in-drug-case-linked-to-huawei-row/2019/01/14/058306a0-17fb-11e9-a804-c35766b9f234_story.html