China’s highest court on Friday overturned a death sentence against a Canadian man convicted of drug smuggling, a sudden reversal in a case that has been a yearslong source of diplomatic friction between Beijing and Ottawa.
The case of the man, Robert Lloyd Schellenberg, was one of several involving Canadians detained in China that the Canadian government condemned as hostage diplomacy. Originally sentenced to 15 years in prison, Mr. Schellenberg received a death sentence after a retrial in 2019 that came weeks after a top Chinese executive, Meng Wanzhou, was arrested in Canada.
On Friday, China’s top court, the Supreme People’s Court, struck down the lower court’s sentence, according to Zhang Dongshuo, one of Mr. Schellenberg’s lawyers. A Canadian official familiar with the situation, who requested anonymity in order to comply with strict privacy considerations, confirmed that the court had overturned the death sentence.
Canada’s foreign ministry, known as Global Affairs Canada, said that it was aware of “a decision” by the Chinese supreme court and added that it would continue to support Mr. Schellenberg and his family but did not offer any details.
“Canada has advocated for clemency in this case, as it does for all Canadians who are sentenced to the death penalty,” it said in a statement.
Mr. Zhang said the case would be retried, but that it was unlikely that his client would be given the death penalty again.
The development comes a few weeks after Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada visited China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, in Beijing. There, the two sides agreed to lower some tariffs on each other’s goods and hailed a “new strategic partnership.”
Angeli Datt, research and advocacy coordinator at Chinese Human Rights Defenders, said that human rights experts have long suspected that Mr. Schellenberg’s death sentence was the result of geopolitical tensions between China and Canada. “It’s hard to ignore the timing of Carney’s recent visit and this development on his case,” she said. “A retrial is a chance to grant him a fair trial.”
Mr. Carney’s trip last month signaled a thaw in a relationship that had been frosty ever since Canadian authorities in late 2018 arrested Ms. Meng, the chief financial officer of the Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei and the daughter of the company’s founder, at the request of the United States.
Days after Ms. Meng’s arrest, China detained two Canadians, Michael Kovrig, a former diplomat, and a businessman, Michael Spavor.
Weeks after that, Mr. Schellenberg was given a death sentence. He had appealed his 15-year prison sentence for smuggling methamphetamines. But during his retrial, against the backdrop of the sharply increased tensions between China and Canada, the court sided with prosecutors who called for capital punishment.
In 2021, Mr. Spavor and Mr. Kovrig were released after Ms. Meng was allowed to return to China in exchange for admitting wrongdoing in a fraud case. But Mr. Schellenberg, who had been convicted of working with others to smuggle 490 pounds of methamphetamines, remained in China. In 2021, a court rejected an appeal of his case and upheld the death sentence. The next step was review by the Supreme People’s Court, as required by Chinese law.
After Mr. Carney’s visit, Mr. Zhang said he had gone into Friday’s hearing more optimistic. He said that “based on recent developments, there was greater hope” that the court would reject the death penalty for Mr. Schellenberg.
Mr. Zhang said that the Supreme Court had overturned death sentences before, but he was surprised that it ordered a retrial rather than issue a new sentence. He said that given the seriousness of his previous sentence, it was unlikely that Mr. Schellenberg would be acquitted. He saw Mr. Schellenberg before the hearing and said that Mr. Schellenberg seemed to be in a “relatively stable condition.”
“His case isn’t over,” Mr. Zhang said.
China leads the world in executions, according to human rights groups. Last year, the country executed four Canadian citizens for drug-related charges.
In recent years, Mr. Carney’s predecessor, Justin Trudeau, and senior members of his cabinet had criticized China publicly over human rights issues.
But faced with President Trump’s onslaught of tariffs on Canadian goods, Mr. Carney has shifted his country’s stance toward China, which during his visit to Beijing he described as a more “predictable partner.”
Asked about China’s human-rights record, Mr. Carney said that Canada had to be pragmatic in pursuing economic and trade deals with China where possible.
Matina Stevis-Gridneff and Pei-Lin Wu contributed reporting.
Lily Kuo is a China correspondent for The Times, based in Taipei.
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