Reuters: “A Chinese court upheld on Tuesday a Canadian man’s death sentence for drug smuggling, prompting condemnation from Ottawa, a day before another court is due to rule on the case of a Canadian accused of spying. The court proceedings for the two Canadians come as lawyers in Canada representing the detained chief financial officer of Chinese telecoms giant Huawei make a final push to persuade a court there not to extradite her to the United States.”
“Robert Schellenberg was arrested in China in 2014 for suspected drug smuggling, convicted in 2018 and jailed for 15 years. The High Court in the northeastern Chinese province of Liaoning heard his appeal against the death sentence in May last year and confirmed the verdict on Tuesday. ‘Canada strongly condemns China’s decision to uphold the death penalty sentence,’ Foreign Minister Marc Garneau said in a statement. ‘We have repeatedly expressed to China our firm opposition to this cruel and inhumane punishment.'”