By Global Times
Canadian drug smuggler Robert Lloyd Schellenberg’s death penalty was upheld by the High People’s Court of Liaoning on Tuesday in second trial. It’s a case that enjoys broad support from the Chinese public as they believe mercy to drug dealers equals infringement on the rights of millions of Chinese people.
The court rejected Schellenberg’s appeal, upheld the original judgment, and reported it to the Supreme People’s Court for approval in accordance with the law.
Schellenberg was sentenced to death by the Intermediate People’s Court of Dalian, Northeast China’s Liaoning Province at a retrial on January 15 2019, 16 days after the Liaoning Provincial High People’s Court sent back the case.
In his first trial, he was sentenced on November 20, 2018 to 15 years in jail for smuggling 222.035 kilograms of meth. During the retrial, prosecutors presented new evidence which showed that Schellenberg not only was the prime culprit of drug smuggling but was also engaged in organized international drug trafficking. Based on that, the court announced that the verdict does not violate the country’s principle of no additional punishment on appeal.
According to China’s Criminal Procedure Law, if the defendant filed an appeal and the second-instance court sent it back for retrial, the court of the original trial may not aggravate the defendant’s penalty unless the prosecutors provide new evidence.
After the retrial, Schellenberg appealed for a second trial. The Liaoning High People’s Court formed a collegial panel in accordance with the law, held a public session to try the case, and concluded that the facts identified in the first trial were clear, the evidence was true and sufficient, the conviction was accurate, the sentence was appropriate and the trial procedure was legal.
During the second trial, the court guaranteed the rights of the appellant Schellenberg in accordance with the law to defend himself and to participate in the proceedings in his own language, and listened to his own defense with the assistance of two translators. Officials from the Canadian Embassy in China, deputies to the National People’s Congress, members of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, and the general public attended the verdict.
Global Times