A Chinese court sentenced Canadian Robert Lloyd Schellenberg to death for drug trafficking on Monday, January 14. The case further escalates China’s diplomatic conflict with Canada following the arrest of Huawei CFO Sabrina Mengin Vancouver in December 2018.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed extreme concern about the Schellenberg case, accusing China of “arbitrarily” applying the death penalty.
Schellenberg was initially detained in 2015 for smuggling methamphetamine into China and was sentenced to 15 years in prison and fined 150,000 yuan (US$22,000).
The 36-year-old former oil worker appealed, maintaining that he was framed.
In the unusually swift retrial, the Dalian Intermediate People’s Court determined that his first sentence was too lenient.
The retrial was ordered only last month, just weeks after Canada arrested Meng Wanzhou, a top executive of telecoms giant Huawei.
The death sentence now must be examined and ratified by China’s highest court.
There are also cases pending against two other Canadians arrested in China on charges of “endangering national security”.
