Death penalty reprisal

Canada-China tensions grow

A CHINESE court has sentenced a Canadian man to be executed for drug smuggling, prompting Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to accuse China of using the death penalty arbitrarily.

The Dalian Intermediate People’s Court re-tried Robert Lloyd Schellenberg, who had appealed his original 15-year prison sentence, and decided on execution. The court said Schellenberg had conspired with others in an attempt to smuggle 222kg of methamphetamine from China to Australia in 2014.

The ruling, and Mr Trudeau’s reaction, could aggravate already sour relations between Beijing and Ottawa following the arrest of a Chinese executive in Canada and China’s subsequent detention of two Canadians.

Schellenberg was told he had the right to appeal to Liaoning High Court within 10 days upon receiving the ruling.

“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,” Mr Trudeau said.

Canada’s foreign ministry updated its travel advisory for China to warn citizens about “the risk of arbitrary enforcement of local laws”.

Schellenberg’s aunt, Lauri Nelson-Jones, said the family’s worst fears had been confirmed. “It is a horrific, unfortunate, heartbreaking situation,” she said.

China-Canada ties turned icy in early December after Meng Wanzhou, chief finan- cial officer of Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies, was arrested in Vancouver on a US extradition warrant.

China warned of unspecified consequences unless Ms Meng was released, and detained Michael Kovrig, a Canadian diplomat from the embassy in Beijing, and Michael Spavor, a Canadian consultant, on suspicion of endangering state security.