CHINA: CANADIAN SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR DRUG SMUGGLING

A Chinese court on 14 January 2019 upped Robert Lloyd Schellenberg’s sentence from 15 years in prison to execution after he appealed against the court’s December verdict.
A retrial was ordered after prosecutors claimed new evidence showed Schellenberg played an important role in drug trafficking operations.
“The evidence is compelling and ample, and the criminal charges are well founded,” the court said.
Schellenberg’s lawyer, Zhang Dongshuo, said on 15 January an appeal would be launched, arguing the court should not have increased the sentence given no new evidence had been introduced during his retrial. “Chinese law stipulates that during an appeal, only if new evidence is discovered and retried can there be an increase in the severity of a sentence,” Zhang said.
China-Canada ties turned icy in early December when Canadian authorities arrested Meng Wanzhou, a senior Huawei executive and Chinese citizen, for extradition to the US.
Critics say Beijing is using Schellenberg’s case to exert pressure on Ottawa.