Canadian sentenced to death in China for drug smuggling

A Chinese court on Monday sentenced a Canadian man to death for drug smuggling after prosecutors said an original 15-year sentence announced in November was too lenient.

“Dalian Intermediate People’s Court in the northeast province of Liaoning retried Robert Lloyd Schellenberg and handed down the death penalty,’’ the court said in a brief statement on its website.

The case is likely again to test relations between Beijing and Ottawa, which has been tensed since Canada’s arrest of a Chinese executive at the request of the U.S. in December.

The arrest was followed by China’s detention of two Canadian citizens on suspicion of endangering state security.