Canadian Sentenced to Death in China for Drug Smuggling

A Chinese court on Jan. 14 sentenced a Canadian man to death for drug smuggling after prosecutors said an original 15-year sentence given in November was too lenient. Dalian Intermediate People’s Court in the northeast province of Liaoning re-tried Robert Lloyd Schellenberg and decided on execution, the court said in a statement on its website. Schellenberg was told in court he has the right to appeal to Liaoning High Court within 10 days upon receiving the ruling, the court said in the second statement, adding that he was involved in organized international drug crimes.

UPDATE: BEIJING—A Chinese court on Jan. 14 sentenced a Canadian man to death for drug smuggling, a ruling sure to aggravate already sour relations between Beijing and Ottawa following the arrest of a senior Chinese executive in Canada.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau condemned the decision. “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,” he told reporters in Ottawa.