China’s top court voids Canadian’s death sentence, orders retrial

China’s highest court has voided the death sentence of Canadian national Robert Lloyd Schellenberg and sent the case back to the Liaoning High People’s Court for retrial, Schellenberg’s Beijing-based lawyer Zhang Dongshuo said. The decision, announced on Friday, marks a dramatic reversal in a case that has been a persistent source of diplomatic tension between Ottawa and Beijing.

Schellenberg was first detained in Dalian in 2014 on drug trafficking charges. He was given a 15-year sentence in 2018, then retried in January 2019 and sentenced to death after a court described the earlier term as too lenient. The 2019 retrial, held in one day, drew sharp criticism from rights groups; Amnesty International called it “a flagrant violation of international law.” Schellenberg has denied wrongdoing throughout the proceedings.

Zhang said he met Schellenberg in Dalian on Friday and that the Canadian appeared “relatively relaxed.” A Canadian official who requested anonymity confirmed to reporting outlets that the Supreme People’s Court had struck down the lower-court judgment. Global Affairs Canada said it was aware of the decision. “Global Affairs Canada (GAC) is aware of a decision issued by the Supreme People's Court of the People's Republic of China in Mr Robert Schellenberg’s case,” spokesperson Thida Ith said in a statement. The department added that “Canada has advocated for clemency in this case, as it does for all Canadians who are sentenced to the death penalty,” and that it would continue to support Schellenberg and his family.

Legal analysts stressed that the court’s move to return the case, rather than alter the sentence itself, fits within Chinese procedure while leaving significant uncertainty about what comes next. Donald Clarke of the Substack Chinese Law Notes noted that Article 250 of China’s Criminal Procedure Law gives the Supreme People’s Court the power to change a lower court’s sentence directly, but in this instance the SPC chose instead to remit the case for retrial. Clarke outlined two likely paths: the Liaoning High People’s Court could take the appeal itself or send it back to the Dalian Intermediate Court, with different implications for subsequent appeals and mandatory review of any death sentence.

The case has long been read through a diplomatic lens. Observers have linked the escalation from a 15-year term to a death sentence with tensions that followed the 2018 arrest in Canada of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou and the subsequent detention in China of Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig. Several recent reports framed the SPC action as occurring amid signs of a diplomatic thaw and increased contact between Ottawa and Beijing, although officials have not said whether political considerations played any role in the court decision.

Court documents explaining the SPC’s reasoning were not immediately public. Observers and rights advocates say the retrial should be conducted with full transparency and adherence to fair-trial standards. For now, Schellenberg remains in custody in Dalian, and his legal team and Canadian officials will watch whether Liaoning takes the case itself or refers it back to the lower court, a choice that will determine the timetable and avenue for any further appeals.