Liaoning high court upholds death sentence for Canadian drug smuggler

The high court in Liaoning province rejected the appeal of a Canadian drug smuggler and upheld his death sentence on Tuesday.

The Liaoning High People's Court announced its decision in the case of Canadian citizen Robert Lloyd Schellenberg, who was given the death penalty by the Dalian Intermediate People's Court in the province for trafficking more than 222 kilograms of methamphetamine in early 2019. His property and assets were also seized in line with the judgment.

Schellenberg was unhappy with the ruling from the intermediate court, so he appealed to the high court.

After a review, the high court said in a statement posted on Sina Weibo, Chinese Twitter-like platform, on Tuesday that the facts of the case were clear, the evidence proving Schellenberg's conviction was sufficient, the procedures carried out during the intermediate court trial were legitimate and the death sentence was appropriate.

Under the Chinese Criminal Procedure Law, when a lower court sentences a person to death, the ruling should be submitted to the Supreme People's Court, China's top court, for a review. The sentence can be carried out after the top court approves it.

While protecting Schellenberg's rights during the trial, the high court also allowed him to use his own language during the proceedings, listened to his lawyers' arguments and hired two interpreters for him, according to the statement.

A number of people, including officials from the Canadian embassy in Beijing and deputies to the National People's Congress, witnessed the ruling on Tuesday, it added.