Canadian drug smuggler faces retrial in China

BEIJING: A Chinese court said on Saturday that a 15-year jail sentence for a Canadian national charged with drug smuggling was too "lenient" and remanded his case for a retrial.

The decision comes as Beijing and Ottawa remain embroiled in a diplomatic row triggered by Canada’s early December arrest of a senior executive from Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei.

The high court in Liaoning, which heard Robert Lloyd Schellenberg’s appeal on Saturday, said in a statement that a previous ruling in November, which sentenced him to 15 years in jail and a 150,000 yuan forfeiture, was "obviously inappropriate" given the severity of his crimes.

Schellenberg played an "important role" in drug smuggling and was potentially involved in international organised drug trafficking activities, said the court, and passed his case back to the lower Dalian court for a retrial without specifying a date.

The high court in Liaoning did not immediately respond to AFP’s request for comment.

China exercises a zero-tolerance policy towards drug trafficking, and has handed death sentences to foreigners found guilty of smuggling large quantities of illicit drugs.

In 2014, a Japanese national sentenced in Dalian city in northeastern Liaoning province was put to death for drug offences, according to Tokyo diplomats and media reports.

Four other Japanese were executed in China in 2010 for drugs offences.

China also sentenced a Filipina drug trafficker to death in 2013, according to the Philippine foreign department, ignoring Manila’s request to spare her life.

A harsher punishment for Schellenberg, such as the death penalty, could further strain ties between Beijing and Ottawa.