China sentences 2nd Canadian to death on drug charges in two days
Beijing, Aug 7 (efe-epa).- A Chinese court on Friday sentenced a Canadian citizen to death on charges of manufacturing and transporting drugs, the second national from the North American country to receive a death penalty in two days for drug offenses.
In a statement published on its website, the Intermediate People’s Court in the southeastern Chinese city of Foshan said the verdict, in the first instance, gave out the death penalty to Ye Jianhui and local Lu Hanchang, apart from confiscating all the properties belonging to the two.
The document said four other accused convicted in the same case would have to serve prison sentences between seven years to a life term, apart from also having to face confiscation of their properties or pay fines.
Ye is the second Canadian to be put on the death row in China in two days after the Intermediate People’s Court of Guangzhou slapped the death sentence on his compatriot Xu Weihong.
The sentences come in the backdrop of tensions between China and Canada over the arrest of Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Chinese tech giant Huawei, who was apprehended on Dec. 1, 2018, at the request of the United States for alleged violation of US sanctions on Iran.
Soon after, Chinese authorities arrested two Canadians, diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor, over charges of endangering China’s national security.
In June this year, the prosecutors in the city of Dandong in the northeastern Liaoning province charged the two Canadians with “spying state secrets and illegally providing them to overseas forces.”
Meanwhile, in May, a Canadian judge ruled that the process to extradite Meng Wanzhou to the US could be taken forward.
Meng has been living at her mansion in Vancouver under bail awaiting Canadian courts to decide on Washington’s plea for her extradition.
Spavor and Kvorig are being held at an unknown location in China, and the details of their case have not been made public.
The cases mark the international repercussions of war for digital supremacy between Beijing and Washington, with China believing that Meng’s arrest forms part of the US strategy to discredit and unseat Huawei as the global leader in technology. EFE-EPA
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