Canadian citizen loses appeal against China death penalty
10 August 2021, 08:23 | Updated: 11 August 2021, 05:27
A Canadian citizen has lost his appeal against a death sentence for drug smuggling in China.
The Chinese supreme court upheld Robert Schellenberg's sentence, saying evidence against him was "sufficient".
He was detained in 2014 and handed a 15-year prison sentence in November 2018, which was swiftly upgraded to the death penalty in January 2019 following the arrest of Huawei's chief financial officer - Meng Wanzhou - in Vancouver.
Meng was detained on US charges related to possible dealings with Iran.
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Schellenberg was charged with planning to smuggle nearly 227kg of methamphetamine from China to Australia, which he denies, instead saying he visited the country as a tourist.
The Higher People's Court of Liaoning Province said procedures against the Canadian were legal and the sentence appropriate.
After sending his case to the supreme court, as is required by law before any death sentences can be carried out, the decision over drug smuggling charges was upheld.
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Beijing also arrested former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig and Canadian entrepreneur Michael Spavor on unspecified spying charges in what appeared to be a bid to pressure Ottawa into releasing Meng.
In 2019, two other Canadians, Fan Wei and Xu Weihong, were also sentenced to death on drug charges as relations between the Chinese and Canadian governments deteriorated.
The US wants to extradite Huawei executive Meng, who is the company founder's daughter, to face charges that she lied to banks in Hong Kong in connection with dealings with Iran that might violate trade sanctions.
A Canadian judge is due to hear final arguments over whether she should be extradited.
