Chinese court sentences Canadian national to death All his personal assets will also be confiscated, according to the court

BEIJING: A Chinese court on Monday sentenced a Canadian national Robert Lloyd Schellenberg to death for his alleged involvement in smuggling drugs amid increasing tensions between Canada and China over the recent arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou.

Schellenberg, a Canadian drug smuggler, was sentenced to death at the Dalian Intermediate People’s Court in northeast China’s Liaoning Province, state-run Xinhua news agency reported on Monday night.

All his personal assets will also be confiscated, according to the court.

Earlier in the day Schellenberg told the court that he had been framed when prosecutors pushed for a harsher sentence in a case which could further exacerbate tensions between the US, Canada and China.

In his defence at his retrial, Schellenberg, a 36-year-old former oil industry employee, said he was a tourist framed by criminals, rejecting allegations he had smuggled more than 200 kgs of methamphetamine in China, the Hong Kongbased South China Morning Post reported.

But prosecutors said they had evidence that “highly suggests Schellenberg was involved in organised international drug crime,” it reported quoting Chinese state-run broadcaster CGTN.

While Schellenberg was initially detained in Liaoning province in 2015, his case assumed significance in the backdrop of increased tensions between Canada and China over Huawei CFO Meng’s arrest.

Meng, the daughter of Hua- wei founder Ren Zhengfei, is currently on bail in Canada after her arrest over alleged violation of US sanctions on Iran. If found guilty she could be jailed for up to 30 years.

Following her arrest, China also detained former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig.

Schellenberg was first tried for drug smuggling in the Dalian court in March 2016 but it was not until more than two years later that the court handed down a verdict, convicting and jailing him for 15 years in November 2018, the Post report said. He was also fined 150,000 yuan.

He appealed against the sentence to the Liaoning High People’s Court, where prosecutors argued the sentence was too lenient. The court heard the appeal on December 29 and ordered a retrial in the lower court.

Schellenberg told the court on Monday that he came to China after travelling through Laos, Myanmar, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.

He said a friend recommended a man named Xu Qing as a translator. “This is a case about Xu Qing. He is an international drug smuggler and a liar,” The Post quoted Schellenberg telling the court. But Xu was presented as a witness by prosecutors.

Two Chinese men were also involved in the case one was sentenced to life in jail, while the other was given a suspended death sentence. KABUL: A car bomb exploded near a foreign compound in the east of Kabul on Monday, wounding more than 40 people, officials said, in the latest attack to rock the Afghan capital.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish said the blast had targeted Green Village, where some foreign workers are based.

Health ministry spokesman Wahidullah Mayar said on Twitter that “more than 40 people are wounded”.

Until recently some UN staff lived and worked at the compound, but Danish said the area was now largely empty and “only a number of guards” were left.

“Residential houses nearby have sustained heavy damages,” Danish said.

“Special police forces’ units have been deployed to the site to check if there are more attackers.” The latest attack comes as US peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad visits the region for meetings aimed at bringing an end to the war in Afghanistan, which by some estimates was the world’s deadliest conflict zone in 2018.

Earlier, India and five Central Asian countries along with Afghanistan on Sunday condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and agreed to cooperate in countering the menace which poses a threat to people across the world.

This was part of a joint statement issued at the end of the first ever meeting of the India-central Asia Dialogue which also saw the participation of Afghanistan at the ministerial level in Samarkand.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj along with the foreign ministers of Afghanistan,

His case gained significance in the backdrop of increased tensions between Canada, China over Huawei CFO Meng’s arrest

Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan took part in the meeting.

“All sides condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and agreed to cooperate in countering terrorism which posed a threat to the people and economies of the world,” the statement said.

It referred to the ancient civilisational, cultural, trade, and people-to-people links between India and Central Asia and expressed commitment to dynamic and fruitful friendly relations and mutually beneficial cooperation between India and the Central Asian countries at bilateral and multilateral formats.