In what appears to be the next level of retaliation against the Government of Canada over the arrest of Huawei’s CFO (chief financial officer), Sabrina Meng Wanzhou, the Chinese may have already decided what to do with Robert Lloyd Schellenberg, a Canadian citizen on charges of drug smuggling. Although information is sketchy, it’s highly possible that Mr. Robert would be given a death sentence.

 

Liaoning High People’s Court, a high court in the north-eastern province of Liaoning said on Wednesday the Canadian – Robert Lloyd Schellenberg – would be tried on drug smuggling charges in Dalian on Saturday (Dec 29). According to Global Times, the mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party, the amount of drugs involved “will surprise you when it goes public.”

 

Apparently, Schellenberg was found by an earlier court ruling to have smuggled “an enormous amount of drugs” into China. The upcoming trial is actually an appeal hearing. However, the timing of the case could be engineered by Beijing to put more pressure on Ottawa, and could increase the tensions up a few notches if the court decides to deliver a death sentence.

Under the China’s Criminal Law, anyone found guilty of smuggling, trafficking, transporting or manufacturing opium of not less than 1,000 grams of heroin or 50 grams of methylaniline or other narcotic drugs of large quantities shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of 15 years, life imprisonment or death, as well as confiscation of property.

 

After the arrest of Sabrina Meng, well-known as the Huawei’s Princess, Beijing has demanded the release of the top executive, warning that Canada would face grave consequences if she was not released. So far, in direct retaliation, China has essentially held 2 Canadians hostage – businessman Michael Spavor and former diplomat Michael Kovrig.

 

A third Canadian, a woman named Sarah McIver, is also being held pending deportation for working illegally in China. Canada and the U.S. have demanded the release of the detained Canadians, only to be lectured by China – accusing Western countries of double standards. Similarly, France, Germany, Britain and the European Union have expressed their concerns over the tit-for-tat arrests.

Canada arrested Ms Meng on Dec 1, the daughter of Huawei’s founder Ren Zhengfei, at the request of the United States, which is presently engaged in a trade war with China. Currently granted bail, but under strict electronic monitoring, she faces extradition to the U.S. to face fraud charges that carry a maximum sentence of 30 years jail for each charge.

 

Trump had said he would intervene with the U.S. Justice Department in the case against the Huawei’s CFO if it would help secure a trade deal with Beijing. But the arrest of Sabrina has been widely perceived as a “political kidnapping” in China. Therefore, the U.S. president’s offering was seen as more of a confession that Sabrina was kidnapped in exchange for a ransom.

 

Robert Lloyd Schellenberg would not be the first foreigner to be executed by the Chinese authorities, if the trial goes south. China executed a Pakistani-British businessman, Akmal Shaikh, for smuggling 4,030 grams of heroin in December 2009, prompting a British outcry over what it claimed was the lack of any mental health assessment. However, Beijing said Shaikh had no “previous medical record” of mental illness.

Briton Akmal Shaikh, a Muslim, was the first European national to be executed in China since Antonio Riva in 1951. Senior British politicians had strongly condemned the execution, and were disappointed that clemency was not granted, while human rights groups and some Western legal experts in Chinese law criticised the lack of due process.

 

The following year, Chinese authorities executed Japanese national Mitsunobu Akano after he was convicted of attempting to smuggle 2.5 kg of stimulant drugs from China to Japan in 2006. Akano became the first Japanese citizen to be executed by China since the two countries normalized diplomatic relations in 1972. Mr. Akano appealed, but the High People’s Court of Liaoning upheld it in 2009.

 

The Chinese later executed 3 more Japanese nationals for drug smuggling and trafficking. But unlike the UK or other Western countries, there was no public outcry in Japan over the execution of the Japanese for drug offenses. In fact, a government poll showed that 86% of Japanese approve of the death penalty.

China has some of the harshest drug laws in the world, partly due to the Opium War against the West in the mid-19th century. Like the British citizen Akmal Shaikh, Canadian Robert Lloyd Schellenberg would be executed by lethal injection, if convicted this Saturday. Is Canada willing to release Sabrina Meng in exchange for Schellenberg’s freedom?

 

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December 27th, 2018 by financetwitter

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