THE ASIAN WAY OF FIGHTING THE WAR ON DRUGS

Canadian is sentenced to DEATH in China for drug trafficking as court changes original 15-year jail sentence, amid ongoing tensions between Beijing and Ottawa over arrest of Huawei exec

Dailey Mail
January 14, 2019

A Canadian convicted of drug trafficking in China has been sentenced to death, according to a Chinese court, amid tensions over Canada 's arrest of a Chinese technology executive late last year.

Robert Lloyd Schellenberg, 36, was arrested in 2014 on suspicion of smuggling crystal meth, according to the Dalian Intermediate People's Court. He was said to be caught while trying to flee from China to Thailand.

He was initially sentenced 15 years in prison by the intermediate court in November, but a high court last month deemed the decision 'too lenient' and Schellenberg was given the death penalty in an open hearing today.

'I am not a drug smuggler. I came to China as a tourist,' Schellenberg, said in his final statement before the sentence was announced.

He was brought to the hearing in handcuffs.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and China take a hardline in the war on drugs, as opposed to our soft-on-drugs approach.

While this case may indeed be Chinese retaliation against the Canadian arrest of the Huawei executive, it nevertheless shows that penalties for drug offenders in Asia are far more harsh than they are here in the U.S.