China condemns Canada after Justin Trudeau's remarks about drug-smuggling sentence

In this image taken from a video footage run by China's CCTV, Canadian Robert Lloyd Schellenberg attends his retrial at the Dalian Intermediate People's Court in Dalian, northeastern China's Liaoning province on Monday, Jan. 14, 2019. (CCTV via AP)

China condemned Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday for “irresponsible” remarks after he accused Beijing of “arbitrarily” applying the death penalty for a man convicted of drug smuggling.

China’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying expressed “strong dissatisfaction” with Trudeau’s remarks in the latest back-and-forth between the two countries, Reuters reported.

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“The remarks by the relevant Canadian person lack the most basic awareness of the legal system,” Hua said at a press briefing, according to Reuters.

Hua, instead, urged Canada to tell its citizens to not partake in drug smuggling.

“We urge the Canadian side to respect the rule of law, respect China’s legal sovereignty, correct its mistakes, and stop making irresponsible remarks,” she said.

Hua’s remarks followed Trudeau strongly condemning a sentence handed down to Robert Lloyd Schellenberg, who was sentenced to death in a sudden retrial of a drug smuggling case. Trudeau suggested that China was using its judicial system to pressure Canada to release Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of the Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei.

“It is of extreme concern to us as a government, as it should be to all our international friends and allies, that China has chosen to begin to arbitrarily apply a death penalty,” Trudeau said.

Schellenberg was detained more than four years ago and initially sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2016. But within weeks of Meng’s Dec. 1 arrest, an appeals court suddenly reversed that decision, saying the sentence was too lenient, and scheduled Monday’s retrial with just four days’ notice.

Schellenberg’s lawyer, Zhang Dongshuo, said prosecutors had not introduced new evidence to justify a heavier sentence during the one-day trial, during which Schellenberg again maintained his innocence. He said his client now has 10 days to appeal.

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“This is a very unique case,” Zhang told The Associated Press. He said the swiftness of the proceedings was unusual but declined to comment on whether it was related to Meng’s arrest.

Fox News’ Frank Miles and the Associated Press contributed to this report.