A Chinese court on Monday 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.
The case will further test bilateral relations, already tense since Canada’s arrest of a Chinese executive at the request of the United States in December, followed by China’s detention of two Canadians on suspicion of endangering state security.
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.
Schellenberg’s lawyer Zhang Dongshuo told Reuters he will likely appeal the sentence. Schellenberg, who was to have been deported after serving his sentence, had lodged an appeal after being handed a 15-year sentence on Nov. 20 in Dalian.
The sentence comes after China detained two Canadians in December in apparent retaliation for Canada’s arrest of a Chinese technology executive.
Schellenberg was detained in 2014 and initially sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2016 on charges of being an accessory to drug smuggling. But last month an appeals court agreed with prosecutors who said the sentence was too lenient.
