BEIJING: China sentenced another Canadian to death on drugs charges on Friday, the second in two days to be handed the punishment.

The Foshan Intermediate People’s Court in the country’s southern Guangdong province said Ye Jianhui had been sentenced for trafficking and manufacturing drugs, and would have all his assets seized.

According to the state-run Global Times, authorities seized more than 217 kilogrammes of white crystals containing MDMA from Ye and five others.

The rest of the group were also sentenced on Friday and one other death sentence was issued while the others were given lesser sentences.

It comes a day after a court in the provincial capital Guangzhou handed the death penalty to Canadian national Xu Weihong on a charge of making drugs.

The ruling also comes after China sentenced two other Canadians to death on drug trafficking charges last year, and as tensions soar between the two countries on a number of fronts including the arrest of top Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou.

Beijing has also detained two Canadian nationals, including a former diplomat, on spying charges, in a move widely considered retaliation for Meng’s arrest in Canada.

Published in Dawn, August 8th, 2020