CHINA executed four Canadian citizens on drugs smuggling charges earlier this year, and strongly condemned Beijing’s use of the death penalty.
Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly revealed that all four had been dual citizens, adding that Ottawa would ask for leniency for other Canadians facing the same horrific fate.
ReutersChina executed four Canadian citizens on drugs smuggling charges earlier this year[/caption]
ReutersCanadian Foreign Ministry said that Robert Schellenberg, a Canadian man sentenced to death in 2019 for drug smuggling, had not been executed[/caption]
She said: “There are four Canadians that have been executed and therefore we are strongly condemning what happened.”
Joly added that all four had been convicted on drug charges.
Separately, the Canadian Foreign Ministry revealed that Robert Schellenberg, a Canadian man sentenced to death in 2019 for drug smuggling, had been spared from execution.
Mr Schellenberg has always proclaimed his innocence insisting he came to China as a “tourist.”
At the time of his sentencing, experts said that Schellenberg was being used as a political pawn in a bigger feud between China, Canada and the US.
Ties between the nations have been icy since 2018 when Meng Wanzhou, Chief Financial Officer of Chinese telecoms firm Huawei, was detained in Vancouver at Washington’s request.
Shortly after, China arrested two Canadians in what appeared to be an act of revenge.
Meng and the Canadian duo were released in 2021.
China said on Thursday it acted “in accordance with the law” despite condemnation from Canada over the execution of four Canadian citizens in recent weeks.
Joly said she was unable to discuss details of the case due to privacy requests from the affected families.
However, Beijing suggested on Thursday the Canadians had been convicted over narcotics offences, saying “combating drug crimes is the common responsibility of all countries”.
“China is a country under the rule of law,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said.
Beijing, she said, “treats defendants of different nationalities equally without discrimination” and “handles cases fairly in strict accordance with the law”.
China “protects the legitimate rights of the parties concerned as well as the consular rights of the Canadian side, in accordance with the law”, Mao said.
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