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Comment by johannkokos | Hacker News Reader

I am confused by this article. It says, "Schellenberg was arrested in 2014 and received his original sentence in 2016 in a case that went unnoticed."

But according to the Chinese court[link 1], he was first sentenced for 15 years in jail on 2018-11-20. Robert appealed to high court. On 2018-12-29, the high court decided the original sentence was too light and asked the intermediate court for a new trial.

link 1: http://court.dl.gov.cn/info/122_138614.vm

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So he smuggled 220kg of meth, while 50g is death penalty in China.

China (vietnam, singapore, etc) has been executing drug smugglers for a long time now. Nobody really raised a fuss when they were executing africans who may not have been aware of the consequences. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-16137327

He was held for four years before being found guilty, with that first verdict giving him 15 years. Not sure what to make of the 2016 part, I think that refers to the date of his first trial.

Here's what the NY Times has on it:

"Last month, a court ordered Mr. Schellenberg to be retried after he appealed a 15-year prison sentence for smuggling methamphetamines. ... After his arrest [in 2014], Mr. Schellenberg was held for 15 months before his first trial, and it took an additional 32 months before a court declared him guilty and sentenced him to 15 years in prison for his role in a failed attempt to smuggle drugs from China to Australia."

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/14/world/asia/china-canada-s...

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