



Canadian drug smuggler Robert Lloyd Schellenberg attends the court for his retrial at the Intermediate People's Court of Dalian in Northwest China's Liaoning Province in January. Photo: Courtesy of Dalian Intermediate People's Court

A court in Northeast China heard the appeal of Canadian Robert Lloyd Schellenberg on Thursday, who had been sentenced to death for smuggling drugs in China.The Liaoning High People's Court in Northeast China said it would issue a verdict at a later date.The court said Schellenberg filed an appeal on February 12 following his guilty verdict in January, when the Dalian Intermediate People's Court sentenced Schellenberg to death for smuggling over 222 kilograms of meth.The Liaoning High People's Court said it notified the Canadian Embassy in China in accordance with relevant regulations before the start of the hearing. During the hearing, the defendant's litigation rights were protected in accordance with the law.Two defense lawyers appointed by the defendant and translators hired by the court attended the hearing. More than 50 people, including Canadian embassy officials, the National People's Congress deputies, Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference members and the general public attended the hearing.Shellenberg's attorney, Zhang Dongshuo, told the Global Times after the hearing that the grounds for appeal remained the same. He previously said the verdict violates the principle of no additional punishment on appeal.Shellenberg was sentenced to 15 years in jail in his first trial on November 20, 2018 for drug trafficking. He appealed afterward.In January's retrial, he was sentenced to death after prosecutors presented new evidence which showed that Schellenberg not only was the prime culprit of drug smuggling but was also engaged in organized international drug trafficking. Based on that, the court announced that the verdict does not violate the country's principle of no additional punishment on appeal.On April 30, another Canadian, identified as Fan Wei (in Chinese spelling), was sentenced by a Chinese court to death for drug trafficking in a separate case.The Canadian citizen together with a Chinese national, identified as Wu Ziping, were found to have "organized and commanded" the operations and were sentenced to death in a large cross-border case that also resulted in various sentences for US and Mexican nationals, according to the website of the Jiangmen Intermediate People's Court.The Global Times has reached out to the Guangdong High People's Court on the defendants' appeal, but had received no reply as of press time.The two cases show China's zero tolerance policy toward drug smuggling and will strive to fight anyone, whether foreigners or Chinese, involved in drug-related activities, Chinese analysts said.Chinese law states that a death sentence can be slapped on anyone smuggling over 50 grams of meth.