A friend of Australian man Karm Gilespie who is facing a death sentence in China for drug smuggling claims that he was set up by a group of Chinese investors.
Friends and family of former actor and entrepreneur Gilespie were shocked to hear of his emergence after vanishing in China 6 years ago. They assert he was wrongly accused of the charges of smuggling methamphetamine, commonly known as “ice.”
Karm attended a meeting with a group of Chinese businesspeople who agreed to invest in his project (a storage facility).
“As a sign of good faith of their intentions,” they gave him some gifts to take back to Australia with him—“brand name leather goods and luggage” that had drugs hidden in the linings.
Hamilton goes on to say that the reason nobody knew of Gilespies’s arrest was due to a decision he and his lawyer made to keep silent so as not to “jeopardise the negotiations with China for his release.”
Gilespie was arrested in 2013 as he was about to board an international flight from Baiyun Airport, in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou.
His first trial after about seven years was on June 10, where a verdict of capital punishment was given. He was given 10 days to appeal the decision.
“It is heartbreaking to think that for the last six and a half years Karm has been in prison without any of us knowing or having any way to support him,” the message on Hamilton’s Facebook said.
“I’m extremely shocked. He was a straightforward person, very honest to a fault, he would tell me the truth always. Very truthful. He was a very direct person, very communicative and loving and caring individual. Very special,” she said.Parris says that Karm’s arrest is impacting the family greatly: “My children have known him since they were born. My daughter’s 37 and my son is 33.”
Speaking at Parliament House on June 15, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he is sad and concerned about the case.
“Australia’s opposition to the death penalty is bipartisan, multipartisan, unanimous, principled, consistent and well-known,” Morrison told parliament during Question Time.
Morrison said Australian officials have raised his case with Chinese counterparts on a number of occasions and are still working to secure his freedom.
“I and the government are very sad and concerned that an Australian citizen, Mr Karm Gilespie, has been sentenced to death in China,” Morrison said.
China’s Drug Double Standard
In an article on June 15, China’s mouthpiece Global Times hinted that Gilespie is being made an example of.“By sentencing Gilespie to death, China has shown its zero tolerance to drug offenses. The death sentence is also meant to be a deterrence to other potential drug criminals,” Global Times reporter Yu Ning wrote.
However, while communist China is notorious for having one of the harshest zero-tolerance penalties for drug offenses, those working for the regime are often treated more leniently for illicit drug offences.
“This means the whole party bureaucracy has something fundamentally wrong at its roots,” said China expert Tang Jingyuan.
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