Canada asks China for clemency for drug-smuggling citizen
Canada has asked China to grant clemency to a Canadian citizen given capital punishment for drug trafficking in China, after Beijing urged Ottawa to respect its judicial sovereignty.
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Canada’s Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said on Tuesday that authorities “have already spoken with China’s ambassador to Canada and requested clemency” for Robert Lloyd Schellenberg, who sentenced to death at a court in northeast China’s Dalian on Monday.
“We believe it is inhumane and inappropriate; and wherever the death penalty is considered with regard to a Canadian, we speak out against it,” Freeland said, however.
Schellenberg, 36, had originally received a 15-year sentence but a retrial deemed that punishment too lenient.
In reaction to the Monday ruling, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused Beijing of acting “arbitrarily” in using the judiciary system.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying denied that Beijing had politicized Schellenberg’s case, calling on Canada on Tuesday to “respect China’s judicial sovereignty.”
“Defendant Schellenberg has committed the crime of smuggling drugs by engaging in organized international drug smuggling activity and smuggled 222.035 kg of methamphetamines with his accomplices,” she said. “The corpus delicti accused by the public prosecution is clear with reliable and complete evidence.”
China has strict rules regarding narcotics crimes. Anyone found with more than 50 grams of a controlled substance can face the death penalty.
“As long as foreigners, including Canadians, abide by the law, their freedom and safety is guaranteed,” Hua further told reporters at a regular briefing. “It is Canada, not China, that is arbitrarily detaining foreign citizens under the guise of the law.”
She was apparently referring to the arrest of an official with the Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei in Canada on United States-filed charges.
That has set off a diplomatic dispute between China and Canada. Apart from Schellenberg, two other Canadian citizens have been arrested in China on charges related to national security.
Canada has issued travel warning to its citizens about the risk of "arbitrary enforcement" of laws in China.
In response, Beijing also issued a similar travel alert, urging its nationals to “fully assess the risks of travel.”
Canada arrested the chief financial officer of Huawei, Meng Wanzhou, in Vancouver in December 2018. The two Canadian nationals — former diplomat Michael Kovrig and business consultant Michael Spavor — were later arrested in China over national security issues.
