BEIJING: A Chinese court sentenced a Canadian national to death on Tuesday for producing and trafficking the addictive stimulant methamphetamine, amid heightened tension between Beijing and Ottawa over the arrest of a Huawei Technologies executive.
Canadian Fan Wei was a leader in the production and trafficking scheme, the Jiangmen Intermediate People’s Court said in a statement.
In response, Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland condemned the use of the death penalty, calling it “cruel and inhumane punishment which should not be used in any country.”
“We’re very concerned by this sentence. Canada stands firmly opposed to the use of the death penalty everywhere... We are obviously particularly concerned when it is applied to Canadians,” she told reporters in Ottawa.
Canada’s foreign ministry, in a separate statement, said Canadian officials attended the verdict and sentencing for Fan, and called on China to grant him clemency.
“Global Affairs Canada has been closely following this case and has been providing consular assistance to Mr. Fan and his family since he was first detained in 2012,” it added.
Another suspect, Wu Ziping, was sentenced to death but Wu’s nationality was not given.
The court also issued judgments against nine other people, including one American and four Mexicans.
It did not specify what sentences five of the nine received, though it indicated the minimum they got was life in prison. It said the other four were jailed but did not say for how long.
Court officials could not be reached for comment.
All 11 can appeal their sentences.
Fan is the second Canadian to be sentenced to death for drug offenses in China this year, during a period of escalating tension between the two countries.
In December, Canadian police arrested Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou, daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, at the request of US prosecutors.
US prosecutors have portrayed the company as a threat to national security and alleged it conspired to violate US sanctions. Both Meng, who is out on bail, and Huawei deny the allegations.
China recently arrested two Canadians on national security grounds.
China has also canceled Canadian agribusiness Richardson International Ltd’s registration to ship canola to China this year.
China sentences Canadian to death for drug offenses
China sentences Canadian to death for drug offenses
- China has canceled Canadian agribusiness Richardson International Ltd’s registration to ship canola to China this year
Top Australian writers’ festival canceled after Palestinian author barred
- 180 authors boycotted the event and its director resigned after a Palestinian author was disinvited
SYDNEY: One of Australia’s top writers’ festivals was canceled on Tuesday, after 180 authors boycotted the event and its director resigned saying she could not be party to silencing a Palestinian author and warned moves to ban protests and slogans after the Bondi Beach mass shooting threatened free speech.
Louise Adler, the Jewish daughter of Holocaust survivors, said on Tuesday she was quitting her role at the Adelaide Writers’ Week in February, following a decision by the festival’s board to disinvite a Palestinian-Australian author.
The novelist and academic Randa Abdel-Fattah said the move to bar her was “a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Tuesday announced a national day of mourning would be held on January 22 to remember the 15 people killed in last month’s shooting at a Jewish Hanukkah celebration on Bondi Beach.
Police say the alleged gunmen were inspired by the Islamic State militant group, and the incident sparked nationwide calls to tackle antisemitism, and prompted state and federal government moves to tighten hate speech laws.
The Adelaide Festival board said on Tuesday its decision last week to disinvite Abdel-Fattah, on the grounds it would not be culturally sensitive for her to appear at the literary event “so soon after Bondi,” was made “out of respect for a community experiencing the pain from a devastating event.”
“Instead, this decision has created more division and for that we express our sincere apologies,” the board said in a statement.
The event would not go ahead and remaining board members will step down, it added.
Former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, British author Zadie Smith, Australian author Kathy Lette, Pulitzer Prize-winning American Percival Everett and former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis are among the authors who said they would no longer appear at the festival in South Australia state, Australian media reported.
The festival board on Tuesday apologized to Abdel-Fattah for “how the decision was represented.”
“This is not about identity or dissent but rather a continuing rapid shift in the national discourse around the breadth of freedom of expression in our nation following Australia’s worst terror attack in history,” it added.
Abdel-Fattah wrote on social media that she did not accept the apology, saying she had nothing to do with the Bondi attack, “nor did any Palestinian.”
Adler earlier wrote in The Guardian that the board’s decision to disinvite Abdel-Fattah “weakens freedom of speech and is the harbinger of a less free nation, where lobbying and political pressure determine who gets to speak and who doesn’t.”
The South Australian state government has appointed a new festival board.
