Trudeau's Remarks On Canadian's Death Sentence 'Irresponsible' - Chinese Foreign Ministry

Trudeau's Remarks on Canadian's Death Sentence 'Irresponsible' - Chinese Foreign Ministry

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying on Tuesday expressed extreme discontent with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's remarks about how China arbitrarily applied the death penalty to a Canadian national and urged Canada to refrain from further "irresponsible statements

BEIJING (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 15th January, 2019) Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying on Tuesday expressed extreme discontent with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's remarks about how China arbitrarily applied the death penalty to a Canadian national and urged Canada to refrain from further "irresponsible statements."

On Monday, an intermediate people's court in the northeastern Chinese city of Dalian, located in the Liaoning province, sentenced Canadian national Robert Lloyd Schellenberg to death for drug smuggling. Trudeau expressed concern that China had chosen to arbitrarily apply the death penalty in this case.

"Everyone is equal before the law, this is the spirit of the rule of law. Canada's statements are not in compliance with the rule of law. We are extremely discontent and urge Canada to respect the rule of law, Chinese judicial sovereignty and stop making irresponsible statements," Chunying said at a briefing.

Chunying stressed that Trudeau's statements were erroneous and had advised Canada to review the court's verdict carefully.

The diplomat added that drug trafficking was recognized as an extremely serious crime and these acts were strictly punished all over the world, including China.

Schellenberg was arrested in China in 2014 or 2015media have reported different dates. He was accused of being involved in an internationally organized drug syndicate, something that he has firmly denied.

The Chinese authorities initially sentenced the Canadian citizen to 15 years in prison. However, in late December, an appeals court ordered a retrial, claiming that the initial punishment was too lenient. The defendant now has ten days to appeal the courts' death sentence, which was issued on Monday.

China and Canada have been in a diplomatic row since Huawei Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Meng Wanzhou, the daughter of the company's founder, was arrested on December 1 in Canada on suspicion of failing to comply with the US sanctions against Iran. Days after, Chinese authorities detained former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor on charges of threatening national security. China has denied that the detention was connected to Meng's arrest, which it denounced.