Schellenberg smuggling incident
The Schellenberg smuggling incident is a case in which the People's Republic of China prosecutors accused Canadian citizen Robert Lloyd Schellenberg of smuggling drugs in China. Prosecutors alleged that in November 2014, Schellenberg attempted to smuggle 222 bags of methamphetamine with a net weight of 222.035 kilograms (489.5 pounds) from Dalian to Australia. After he noticed that things had changed , Schellenberg boarded a plane at Dalian Zhoushuizi International Airport and planned to flee to Thailand. Schellenberg was arrested by Chinese police when the plane stopped at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport. Schellenberg argued that he was framed by drug dealer Xu Qing and that he was an innocent tourist. On November 20, 2018, the Dalian Intermediate People's Court trialed and sentenced Schellenberg to 15 years in prison for drug smuggling, confiscation of 150,000 yuan in personal property, and deportation. Schellenberg appealed the verdict. On December 29 of the same year, the Liaoning Provincial High People's Court retried him. During the trial, the prosecutor claimed that the initial trial that Schellenberg was an accessory criminal, and the crime did not succeed, so the punishment should be light was inappropriate. The High Court of Liaoning Province ruled in court to send the case back to Dalian Intermediate People's Court for retrial. On January 14, 2019, the Dalian Intermediate People's Court opened a retrial to review the case, sentencing Schellenberg to death and confiscation of all property. After the retrial, Schellenberg's defense team stated that it would appeal. Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland claimed to have asked the Chinese government to spare Schellenberg's life.

The Schellenberg case has caused controversy in law and diplomacy. Article 237 of the "Criminal Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China" and Article 327 of the "Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court on the Application of the Criminal Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China" stipulates that if the defendant appealed and the retrial court returned the case for review, the original trial court shall not increase the criminal's sentence unless there are new criminal facts and additional prosecutions by the People's Procuratorate, which is the so-called "no additional sentence for appeal" rule. Schellenberg's defense lawyer Zhang Dongshuo and others argued that the Dalian Intermediate People's Court's decision violated the rule of "no additional sentence on appeal". Chinese official media and some Chinese jurists believe that the judgment of the Dalian Intermediate People's Court is in line with Article 327, as they argued that there were additional evidence and hence the rule no longer applies. In addition, some questioned the case's evidence and trial procedures.

Prior to the retrial, on December 1, 2018, at the request of the United States, Canada arrested the vice chairman of Huawei, Meng Wanzhou, causing friction in China-Canada relations. China has arrested two Canadian citizens for jeopardising national security. Some people believe that China was pressuring Canada through Schellenberg, and the previous "hostage diplomacy" has been upgraded to "criminal diplomacy." Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has publicly expressed serious concerns that China's death sentence is arbitrary. The Canadian government issued a travel warning saying that going to China may face the risk of arbitrary enforcement of laws in the country, requiring citizens traveling to China to be highly vigilant. In response, China's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying urged Canada to respect China's laws and stop issuing irresponsible remarks. The foreign ministry also issued a remark in response, urging Chinese citizens to pay attention to risks as Canada had been arbitrarily arresting Chinese citizens recently.
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Schellenberg smuggling incident
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