Australia should not exonerate a drug trafficker: analysts

Drug smuggling is an extremely serious crime in China, and Australia should not seek to exonerate a drug trafficker by mixing up a criminal case with its diplomatic ties with China, said Chinese experts after the Australian foreign ministry said it is “deeply saddened” by a Chinese court’s decision to sentence an Australian man to death for drug smuggling.

Australian Karm Gilespie was sentenced to death for drug smuggling at the first trial by a court in Guangzhou on June 10, Guangzhou Intermediate People’s Court said. The only other information the court gave was that the person’s property was confiscated.

Gilespie was found to be carrying more than 7.5 kilograms of methamphetamine in his luggage at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport on December 31, 2013.

According to Australian media ABC News on Saturday, a spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Australia said it was providing consular assistance “to an Australian man detained in China.”

Chen Hong, director of the Australian Studies Center at East China Normal University in Shanghai, said that “Drug trafficking is a serious felony in China and internationally. The verdict to sentence Gilespie to death was made in full compliance with China’s laws.”

Other Australian and international media outlets like the BBC speculated or hinted that the verdict is related to the worsening China-Australia relationship, and it is intended to pressure Australia.

Chinese analysts debunked the claim as being ridiculous to mix crime with diplomacy. Politicizing a legal case is absurd, they said, and China does not need to take such a move to retaliate against Australian provocations.