Chinese court upholds death sentence for drug smuggling case of Robert Schellenberg

Chinese court upholds death sentence for Canadian citizens Robert Schellenberg He was detained in China in 2014 for a drug case.

The Higher People’s Court of Liaoning Province rejected Schellenberg’s appeal and stated in a statement on Monday that the ruling was appropriate and the lower court’s procedures were legal. Send the case to the Supreme Court of China for review.

Schellenberg He was detained by the Chinese authorities in December 2014 and was formally charged with drug smuggling in January 2015. The sentence on his first 15 years of drug smuggling charges was overturned and he was sentenced to death after a retrial in January 2019.

The next and final step in China’s legal process is the mandatory review by the Supreme People’s Court.

Throughout his detention, Canadian consular officials have been granted consular access to Schellenberg-although due to COVID-19 restrictions, they were not granted consular access from January to October last year.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau It had previously condemned the death penalty, saying that China “arbitrarily” applied the death penalty to this case.

Schellenberg has always insisted on his innocence.

1:28Justin Trudeau calls the death penalty imposed on Canadians in China arbitrary

At the same time, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told Global News that it is expected that Michael Spavor will be sentenced this week. He is one of two Michaels detained in China for more than two and a half years.

Spaffer is either innocent or guilty. In December 2018, Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Huawei, was arrested by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Vancouver at the request of the US authorities. A few days later, he and Kang Mingkai were detained in China.

The United States accused Meng of violating sanctions on doing business with Iran and other corporate espionage charges, and is seeking her extradition. Meng, Huawei and Beijing have all denied any allegations of misconduct.

Although China denies that the arrests of Kovrig and Spavor were retaliatory measures, officials also stated that if Meng is allowed to return to China and the case against her is dropped, the couple can be released. Canada refuses to accept such exchanges.

— File from the Associated Press