China sentences Canadian man to death after Canada detains tech executive

Chinese and Canadian flags.
(Image credit: MARK SCHIEFELBEIN/AFP/Getty Images)

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.

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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.

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Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.