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China sentences Canadian man to death for drug smuggling


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China court sentences Canadian to death as diplomatic row deepens

By Philip Wen, Christian Shepherd and David Ljunggren

 

2019-01-14T125513Z_1_LYNXNPEF0D0YN_RTROPTP_4_CHINA-CANADA.JPG

A general view of the Intermediate People's Court of Dalian, where the trial for Robert Lloyd Schellenberg, a Canadian citizen on drug smuggling charges, will be held, in Liaoning province, China January 14, 2019. REUTERS/Stringer


BEIJING/OTTAWA (Reuters) - A Chinese court on Monday 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 ruling, and Trudeau's reaction, could aggravate already sour relations between Beijing and Ottawa following the arrest of a senior Chinese executive in Canada and China's subsequent detention of two Canadians.

 

The Dalian Intermediate People's Court in China's northeast province of Liaoning re-tried Robert Lloyd Schellenberg, who had appealed his original 15-year prison sentence, and decided on execution, the court said in a statement.

 

Schellenberg was told in court he had the right to appeal to Liaoning High Court within 10 days upon receiving the ruling, the intermediate court said in a second statement.

 

"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 ... as in this case," Trudeau told reporters in Ottawa.

 

Schellenberg's aunt, Lauri Nelson-Jones, said the family's worst fears had been confirmed.

 

"Our thoughts are with Robert at this time. It is rather unimaginable what he must be feeling and thinking," she said in a statement to Reuters.

 

"It is a horrific, unfortunate, heartbreaking situation. We anxiously anticipate any news regarding an appeal."

 

China-Canada ties turned icy in early December after Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies Co Ltd [HWT.UL], was arrested in Vancouver on a U.S. extradition warrant.

 

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

 

Beijing has not drawn a direct link between the detentions and the arrest of Meng, wanted by U.S. authorities for allegedly misleading multinational banks about Iran-linked transactions. Western diplomats in Beijing, however, say the cases are a tit-for-tat reprisal.

 

Lu Shaye, China's ambassador to Canada, suggested in a newspaper article last week that the arrest of Kovrig and Spavor was "China's self-defence," but did not give details.

 

Earlier on Monday, China's government dismissed Trudeau's statement that Kovrig enjoyed some form of diplomatic immunity.

 

A Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman said Trudeau should "earnestly study" the Vienna Convention governing diplomatic ties so as to "not become a laughing stock."

 

Trudeau said Ottawa "will continue to engage strongly" with Beijing over Kovrig's status and what he called China's arbitrary use of justice.

 

Rights groups condemned the Schellenberg sentence while Guy St-Jacques, who was Canada's ambassador in Beijing when Kovrig worked there, expressed concern at how quickly the courts had acted.

 

"The Canadian government will make representations in Beijing, but based on past experience I am not sure whether this will work," he told the CBC. "We are in a very difficult place."

 

222 KG OF METHAMPHETAMINE

St-Jacques said Canada should immediately call for a top-level meeting of foreign policy and security advisers from the two nations "to impress upon the Chinese side that they have to abide by international law".

 

Alex Lawrence, chief spokesman for Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland, declined to comment.

 

William Nee of Amnesty International noted that drug-related offences did not meet the threshold of the "most serious crimes" to which the death penalty must be restricted under international law.

 

Drug smuggling is routinely punished severely in China. Beijing has previously executed foreign nationals convicted of drug-related crimes - a Briton was executed in 2009.

 

The court said Schellenberg had conspired with others in an attempt to smuggle 222 kg (489.43 lb) of methamphetamine from China to Australia in late 2014.

 

Chinese state television said in an earlier report that Schellenberg argued in court that he was a tourist visiting China and was framed by criminals.

 

A lawyer for Schellenberg, Zhang Dongshuo, told Reuters his client would probably appeal against the death sentence.

 

The Liaoning High Court in late December ordered the case retried after prosecutors said the sentence was too light and improper.

 

Beijing considers the number of people executed in China to be a state secret. International human rights organisations estimate the annual figure at around 2,000.

 

(Additional reporting by Michael Martina in BEIJING, Meg Shen and Twinnie Siu in HONG KONG, Tyler Choi in TORONTO; Writing by Se Young Lee and David Ljunggren; editing by Mark Heinrich and Marguerita Choy)

 
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-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-01-15
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"The court said Schellenberg had conspired with others in an attempt to smuggle 222 kg (489.43 lb) of methamphetamine from China to Australia in late 2014."

 

It would be interesting to know how he was moving 222kg around.

Perhaps they will take a similar approach to the Chinese nationals who made it in the first place!

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10 minutes ago, 300sd said:

Of course this is just a coincidence....with regard to the Huawei CFO arrest.

 

Another coincidence is that I will never connect through Hong Kong again! Screw China.

I have been connecting through Shanghai or Beijing, HK is more expensive.   

The $$ I save, I use it in Soi 6 Pattaya.  

 

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5 hours ago, webfact said:

appealed his original 15-year prison sentence, and decided on execution, the court said in a statement.

Appealing to die for a 15 year sentence I would say is more justification for mental issues than those currently running round the UK with machetes stabbing people in the name of some ficticious entity !

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3 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Hard to tell if this is just to pressure Canada, or the real deal. If he really is a drug trafficker, then he has no claim on anyone's sympathy.

He is a convicted drug trafficker and served 2 sentences for that in Canada. 

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"Our thoughts are with Robert at this time. It is rather unimaginable what he must be feeling and thinking,"

 

He's probably thinking "I shouldn't have tried to enrich myself smuggling 222kg of meth".

 

That's a lot of meth. Would have probably caused at least a few deaths. I have zero sympathy for him.

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31 minutes ago, pegman said:

He is a convicted drug trafficker and served 2 sentences for that in Canada. 

 

Yes but in a tolerant liberal PC society like Canada, the poor man is obviously seen as a victim of capitalist driven unfair society pressure who deserves to deserves rehabilitation again, and again, and again.

 

Whereas China sees a career criminal drug dealer who they will eliminate once and for all. 

 

Even with the death penalty the rewards of the criminal drug trade seem sufficient to attract criminals.

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6 hours ago, webfact said:

"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 ... as in this case," Trudeau told reporters in Ottawa.

This is not an arbitrarily applied death sentence. China routinely executes convicted drug dealers and smugglers. China leads the world in capital punishment with approximately 2500 executions per year. People must avoid even the appearance of guilt in China. Trudeau should not try to interfere. People should know that when they travel to China, they are entering a country with zero human rights, especially for foreigners. Not sure how the benefits of going there, even to sell drugs, could ever balance the risk anyone takes who sets foot in that country.

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1 minute ago, balo said:

I do not support the death sentence, especially when nobody has been murdered.   

Yes drugs kills, but he should be locked in for life instead.  

 

 

That is if you by free will want to use them, no one will compel you.

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The Chinese who supply the base chemicals to Myanmar for the massive meth production operations there as well the chemists in China who are churning out the fentanyl flooding North America also need to held accountable. But since that money makes it up the food chain to the monsters in power there, I don't see any reduction of these substances on the streets. In America now, you are more likely to die from a opioid overdose than a car accident according to stats released recently and China has had a big hand in this disturbing fact. Of course China hands out the death penalty, they want to keep the prices high so the profits are maintained. If the penalty was a slap on the wrist the price would bottom out and it wouldn't be worth the time for the Chinese. The Chinese will never want to see addiction treated as a medical issue, too much cash available when enforcing draconian drug laws and killing the odd foreigner. 

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7 hours ago, webfact said:

The court said Schellenberg had conspired with others in an attempt to smuggle 222 kg (489.43 lb) of methamphetamine from China to Australia in late 2014.

As China has become a global source of precursor chemicals, reports of meth abuse and meth lab incidents in China have also become more frequent. To combat rising meth use among Chinese citizens, large-scale drug busts have become more common during the last few years, particularly in coastal cities and towns. In addition, Beijing has introduced new drug regulations and enhanced cooperation with international counter-narcotic organizations.

  • Despite these efforts, China remains one of the largest global producers of meth precursor chemicals.

Meth Precursor Chemicals from China: Implications for the United States

July 18, 2016.

https://www.uscc.gov/sites/default/files/Research/Staff Report_PrecursorChemicalReport 071816_0.pdf

So no thanks to the Chinese government failing to prevent manufacture of precursor chemicals for methamphetamine.

 

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1 hour ago, from the home of CC said:

The Chinese who supply the base chemicals to Myanmar for the massive meth production operations there as well the chemists in China who are churning out the fentanyl flooding North America also need to held accountable. But since that money makes it up the food chain to the monsters in power there, I don't see any reduction of these substances on the streets. In America now, you are more likely to die from a opioid overdose than a car accident according to stats released recently and China has had a big hand in this disturbing fact. Of course China hands out the death penalty, they want to keep the prices high so the profits are maintained. If the penalty was a slap on the wrist the price would bottom out and it wouldn't be worth the time for the Chinese. The Chinese will never want to see addiction treated as a medical issue, too much cash available when enforcing draconian drug laws and killing the odd foreigner. 

This brings to mind how Afganistan under the mad mullahs had reduced production of heroin to zero. Then went back to being the world's top supplier when the Americans took control. 

 

The judge this guy had at his last trial in Canada had tried to warn him. 

"Your country deserves much better from you. You are in one of the best places in the world to live," Brown said as he sentenced Schellenberg in B.C. Supreme Court in Chilliwack. 

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/schellenberg-china-drugs-sentence-death-1.4977808

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If I was a drug dealer with a functioning brain and wasn't using my own product, the first thing I would do is check to make sure any country I was going to smuggle through didn't have the death penalty. And if I ended up with a death sentence I could only say to myself, "<deleted> Idiot."

At least they use a bullet in the back of the head which is quick, and not dangling on the end of a rope twitching around and crapping myself.

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8 hours ago, animalmagic said:

"The court said Schellenberg had conspired with others in an attempt to smuggle 222 kg (489.43 lb) of methamphetamine from China to Australia in late 2014."

 

It would be interesting to know how he was moving 222kg around.

Perhaps they will take a similar approach to the Chinese nationals who made it in the first place!

They don’t usually care if it’s not killing their own.  Half the deaths from opioids in the USA are said to be from China.

More money for the belt and road!

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4 hours ago, Srikcir said:

As China has become a global source of precursor chemicals, reports of meth abuse and meth lab incidents in China have also become more frequent. To combat rising meth use among Chinese citizens, large-scale drug busts have become more common during the last few years, particularly in coastal cities and towns. In addition, Beijing has introduced new drug regulations and enhanced cooperation with international counter-narcotic organizations.

  • Despite these efforts, China remains one of the largest global producers of meth precursor chemicals.

Meth Precursor Chemicals from China: Implications for the United States

July 18, 2016.

https://www.uscc.gov/sites/default/files/Research/Staff Report_PrecursorChemicalReport 071816_0.pdf

So no thanks to the Chinese government failing to prevent manufacture of precursor chemicals for methamphetamine.

 

and just recently classified fentanyl as a controlled substance, prior to that there was no law on the books concerning production even though the U.S. and Canada have pleaded for cooperation for years...

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5 hours ago, from the home of CC said:

I don't understand why he only received 15 yrs initially, he must of aided the investigation. In normal circumstances he would of received the death penalty the first time considering the amount.  

....'have' not 'of'........sorry.

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This canadian PM is totally off his mind and of course with the CEO of that chinese telecom business being held in Canada because the USA are saying she did some bad business so Trump did row Trudeau under the bus and now canada is in trouble again the US are saying Canada is unsafe of course Trudeau is welcoming ISIS canadian murderer back here and in one of them awarded of 10.5 millions dollars what to say about that?This Canadian dope dealer deserve what will come soon.

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