The Schellenberg smuggling incident is a case in China, which Canadian citizen Robert Lloyd Schellenberg was convicted and sentenced to capital punishment on charges of smuggling drugs in China, which Canada "condemned in the strongest possible terms".
According to the prosecutors for the state, Schellenberg attempted to smuggle methamphetamine with a net weight of just over from Dalian to Australia in November 2014; after discovering that his translator had informed the police, he reportedly boarded a plane at Dalian Zhoushuizi International Airport with the intention of fleeing to Thailand. Schellenberg was arrested by Chinese police, when the plane had a stopover at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport. Schellenberg argued that he was framed by drug dealer Xu Qing and that he was an innocent tourist. On November 20, 2018, the Dalian Intermediate People's Court sentenced Schellenberg to 15 years in prison for drug smuggling, confiscation of 150,000 yuan in personal property, as well as deportation. Schellenberg appealed the verdict. The following December 29, the Liaoning Provincial High People's Court retried him. During the trial, the state prosecutor claimed Schellenberg was an accessory criminal. At the retrial, it was claimed he played an "important role". Despite the crime not succeeding, a light punishment was rejected. The High Court of Liaoning Province ruled in court to send the case back to Dalian Intermediate People's Court for retrial. On January 14, 2019, the Dalian Intermediate People's Court opened a retrial to review the case, sentencing Schellenberg to death and confiscation of all property. After the retrial, Schellenberg's defense team stated that it would appeal.
The Schellenberg case has caused controversy in law and diplomacy. Chinese law stipulates that if the defendant appealed and the retrial court returned the case for review, the original trial court shall not increase the criminal's sentence unless there are new criminal facts and additional prosecutions by the People's Procuratorate, which is the so-called "no additional sentence for appeal" rule. According to Article 347 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China, 15 years of imprisonment, life imprisonment, or the death penalty are appropriate sentences for smuggling over 50 g, (with Schellenberg smuggling 222 kg).
Schellenberg's defense lawyer Zhang Dongshuo and others argued that the Dalian Intermediate People's Court's decision violated the rule of "no additional sentence on appeal". Chinese official media and some Chinese jurists believe that the judgment of the Dalian Intermediate People's Court is in line with relevant laws, as they argued that there was additional evidence and hence the rule no longer applies. In addition, some questioned the case's evidence and trial procedures.
Prior to the retrial, on December 1, 2018, at the request of the United States, Canada arrested the vice chairman of Huawei, Meng Wanzhou, causing friction in Canada–China relations. China later arrested two Canadian citizens for jeopardising national security. Some sources believe that China has been pressuring Canada through Schellenberg, as well as that the previous "hostage diplomacy" has been upgraded to "criminal diplomacy."
In February 2026, his death sentence was overturned by the Supreme People’s Court of China.
Defendant's history
Robert Lloyd Schellenberg (born 1982) is a Canadian citizen and grew up in Abbotsford, British Columbia. Schellenberg had been jailed twice in Canada for drug possession, and had been arrested a total of 11 times for drug offences and driving under influence before being arrested in China. According to 2012 court documents, Schellenberg had previously suffered from a femoral injury at work, and began to use pain medications to relieve pain and became addicted. In 2010, Schellenberg was sentenced to "one year in prison and two years' probation" for trafficking and transporting drugs. In 2012, Schellenberg was sentenced to two years in prison for drug-related offenses including for trafficking purposes. His father stopped supporting him since he was in prison, but some other relatives still supported him. When Schellenberg was released from prison in 2013, his whereabouts were unknown. According to his aunt, Schellenberg "used earnings from working in Alberta’s oil fields to pay for his travels in Asia".
Case At the time of the retrial, the Dalian Intermediate People's Court determined that "Kem", "Steven", "Mr. Zhou" and others were controlling an international drug trafficking organization. They had two accounts with Ping An Bank of China and China Merchants Bank to provide funds for drug trafficking. In mid-October 2014, Kem hired a translator Xu Qing, who did not know of the drugs, to rent a warehouse in Dalian to purchase tires, and hid 20 tons of plastic pellets (including 222 packets of methamphetamine that Mr. Zhou and Jian Xiangrong took from Guangzhou) in the warehouse. Kem also informed Xu Qing that he would send a foreigner to help handle the goods. On November 11, 2014, Xu Qing received the goods in Dalian. On November 19, Schellenberg arrived in Dalian under the designation of Kem, trying to hide the drug in a tire liner and smuggle it to Australia. Later, at the request of Schellenberg, Xu Qing brought him to buy related tools, including tires, liners, and used containers. After checking the cargo and estimating the workload, Schellenberg postponed the shipping time from November to December. In the afternoon of November 27, Schellenberg contacted Mai Qingxiang by phone and asked him to find another warehouse to store drugs. Mai telephoned a warehouse shop in Dalian to find a warehouse. On November 29, Xu Qing suspected that the case was a drug crime and reported it to the police. Upon finding out that the police were informed, Schellenberg planned to escape to Thailand from the hotel via Dalian Airport in the early morning of December 1, 2014. On the way, he discarded his old phone card and replaced it with a new one. When the plane had a stopover at Guangzhou Baiyun Airport at 1 pm on the same day, the police arrested Schellenberg. After inspection by the police, the net weight of 222 packets of methamphetamine he was carrying was . In December 2014, Schellenberg was detained. In January 2015, the prosecution approved his arrest and he was taken to the Dalian Detention Center.
According to the Dalian Intermediate People's Court, from mid-November to early December 2014, Mr. Zhou twice sent Jian to hire a car to transport the goods with drugs from Guangzhou to Hangzhou. Jian, "Stephen" and Mai participated in the transportation. On December 5, Mai was arrested by the police. The public security department seized 501 kilograms of methamphetamine. During the period, Kem and others used the two controlled accounts to provide funds for Jian and Mai. By the time of the retrial, Kem, Stephen and Mr. Zhou had not been captured by the Chinese police, and Jian and Mai had been dealt with in another case. Jian was sentenced to life imprisonment for drug trafficking and illegal possession of drugs, and Mai was sentenced to death with two-year reprieve for drug trafficking.
Schellenberg pleaded not guilty and described himself as an innocent tourist framed by Xu. Schellenberg said he hadn't been to a "warehouse with methamphetamine", but only traveled near the warehouse; Xu took him to a tool store and a tire store, but he didn't buy tools and tires. Schellenberg's defense lawyer, Zhang, believed in the first instance that the evidence in this case was insufficient and that the facts were unclear, and the trial did not rule out a number of major reasonable doubts.
Relevant Chinese laws
Smuggling Chapter VI, Section VII of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China, as amended in 1997, stipulates that smuggling, trafficking, transportation, manufacturing over 50 grams of methamphetamine may carry a sentence of fifteen years in prison, life imprisonment or execution, and confiscation of property.
There are many precedents in China for death penalties for drug crimes being applied to foreign nationals. In 2009, the British national Akmal Shaikh was executed for drug trafficking. The then UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown had personally pleaded with Chinese President Hu Jintao not to execute Shaikh. From 2010 to 2016, six Japanese were sentenced to death for drug crimes in China. In 2014, three South Koreans were executed for drug trafficking.
"No additional sentence for appeal" rule Article 237 of the "Criminal Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China" and Article 327 of the "Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court on the Application of the Criminal Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China" stipulate that if the defendant appealed and the retrial court returned the case for review, the original trial court shall not increase the criminal's sentence unless there are new criminal facts and additional prosecutions by the People's Procuratorate, which is the so-called "no additional sentence for appeal" rule.
First trial On March 15, 2016, the Dalian Intermediate People's Court opened a trial for the Schellenberg drug smuggling case. The Canadian Embassy in China attended the hearing. On November 20, 2018, the Intermediate People's Court of Dalian sentenced Schellenberg to 15 years in prison, confiscation of RMB150,000 of personal property, and deportation. Schellenberg's defense lawyers claimed his innocence. Schellenberg himself appealed against the verdict.
Second trial On December 26, 2018, the Liaoning Provincial Higher People's Court announced that the appeal was scheduled to open for trial at 2 pm on December 29, 2018, and it did so without delay. There were about 50 auditors, including officials and media. Schellenberg's defense lawyer, Zhang, defended his innocence. Zhang pointed out in court that the first trial did not rule out a number of important doubts, and the facts were unclear and the evidence was insufficient; even if the court convicts Schellenberg, taking into account that he failed to commit smuggling, combined with other factors, he should be sentenced to deportation instead of imprisonment. Zhang also considered the possibility of witness Xu Qing being a special police officer, and asked key witness Xu Qing to appear in court. Schellenberg argued that Xu had taken him to tool stores and tire stores, but he had not bought tires and tools; he had never entered a warehouse with drugs, and Xu Qing had only taken him to sightseeing nearby. Schellenberg said three times in court, "It's ridiculous". Prosecutors said that according to the clues they had, the case was likely to be an organized international drug trafficking activity, in which Schellenberg played an important role. The first trial that sentenced Schellenberg to 15 years in prison should be reviewed by that court. The trial lasted about two and a half hours. The Liaoning Provincial High Court issued a judgment, stating that the facts of the first trial were unclear, and the decision was returned to the initial court.
Sino-Canadian relations before the retrial