China sentences Canadian man to death after Canada detains tech executive

One of the 13 Canadians reportedly detained in China has been given a death sentence.

Appealing a previous sentence of 15 years in prison, Robert Lloyd Schellenberg was given the death penalty for drug smuggling, the Dalian Intermediate People's Court announced Monday. The decision comes after Canadian authorities detained a Chinese tech executive in December, per The New York Times.

Canada detained Meng Wanzhou, the CFO of China's Huawei company and daughter of its founder, at America's request last month, per BBC. She allegedly violated U.S. sanctions against Iran. China "promised retaliation" for the move, inflaming relations between the country and Canada, The Globe and Mail reports.

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Schellenberg had been sentenced to 15 years in jail for smuggling methamphetamines just before Meng's arrest, but appealed the decision. His retrial was quickly scheduled "after tensions erupted between the two countries," the Times writes. The retrial took one day, and there is "no indication that his sentence might be reduced to a prison sentence," per the Times.

Just last week, Poland detained another Huawei executive on charges of spying for China. Wang Weijing has since been fired by Huawei, per The Wall Street Journal. Since Meng's detention, Canada has claimed 13 of its citizens have been detained in China, though at least eight of them have been released. Meng has also been relocated to house arrest on bail.