China overturns death sentence for Canadian Robert Schellenberg: NYT report

OTTAWA – China’s highest court has overturned a Canadian man’s death sentence, The New York Times is reporting.

The death sentence ordered for British Columbia native Robert Lloyd Schellenberg in 2019 after he was convicted on drug smuggling charges was overturned by the Supreme People’s Court, the newspaper said Friday.

The decision comes just weeks after Prime Minister Mark Carney was in Beijing for meetings with President Xi Jinping and other officials.

During that visit, the countries agreed to resolve a trade dispute that saw Beijing tariff Canadian agricultural goods in retaliation for Ottawa’s tariffs on electrical vehicles from China.

The two sides also signed agreements to reboot working groups and institutional mechanisms that touched on fields such as finance, lumber, oil, green technology and tourism.

Clémence Grevey, a spokesperson for Global Affairs Canada, told The Canadian Press the department was aware of a decision issued by the Chinese court in Schellenberg’s case.

Grevey said the department will “continue to provide consular services to Mr. Schellenberg and to his family.”

She said Canada has advocated for clemency in this case, as it does for all Canadians who are sentenced to death abroad.

Schellenberg was initially sentenced in 2018 to 15 years in prison. 

He received a death sentence in a retrial about one month after China detained Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, who were released in 2021.

The moves were widely seen as retaliation for Canada’s arrest of Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of the Chinese telecom company Huawei.

The New York Times has reported that Schellenberg’s lawyer said his case will be retried.

— With files from Dylan Robertson and The Associated Press