China Reverses Death Penalty for Canadian in Drug-Smuggling Case

China’s Supreme People’s Court overturned the death sentence against Robert Lloyd Schellenberg on Friday, a sudden reversal in a case that had long strained relations between Beijing and Ottawa. Schellenberg was originally sentenced to 15 years, but a 2019 retrial delivered a death sentence after the high-profile arrest in Canada of Meng Wanzhou.

Two other Canadians, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, were detained shortly after Meng’s arrest; they were released in 2021 after Meng returned to China and admitted wrongdoing in a fraud case. Schellenberg had been convicted of working with others to smuggle 490 pounds of methamphetamines, and a 2021 appeal had upheld the death sentence before the case went to the Supreme People’s Court for review.

Zhang Dongshuo, one of Schellenberg’s lawyers, said the top court struck down the lower court’s sentence and ordered a retrial, and he expected it was unlikely his client would again face capital punishment. A Canadian official confirmed the court had overturned the death sentence.

China, Beijing