There are fears other Australians on drugs charges in China could also receive the death penalty following the surprise sentencing of a Victorian television actor and businessman at a time of tense relations between Canberra and Beijing.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the government was "sad and concerned" over the
sentence handed to Karm Gillespie and had raised the case with Chinese officials on a number of occasions since his arrest in 2013 for allegedly trying to leave China with 7.5 kilograms of ice.
"Australia's opposition to the death penalty is bipartisan, multipartisan, unanimous, principled, consistent and well-known," Mr Morrison told Parliament.
"Our thoughts are with him, his family and his loved ones."
Sixty-two Australians are in Chinese jails, but the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade did not provide details of the charges they are facing, on privacy grounds.
Mr Gillespie's case was not publicly known until the Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court announced the sentence on Friday.
The government has not publicly linked the sentence to the current strains in relations following the Morrison government's push for an inquiry into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.
But other observers have, fearing it represents a significant escalation in China's hostility towards Australia, which previously has largely been restricted to trade matters.
Australian Strategic Policy Institute chief Peter Jennings said there was a risk other Australians detained in China on serious charges could also face execution.
Mr Jennings said China was "probably the most active user of the death penalty", commonly in relation to drug and espionage offences.
"Those two charges are most easily available to enmesh foreign nationals, so I think it is a risk," he said.
"China has shown in its treatment of the two Michaels [two Canadian men] it won't hesitate to go after people on trumped-up charges if they think it addresses a political drive.
"Once the constraints of normal behaviour are shed there is a risk for other Australians."
Asked about the case on Monday night, China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian denied Mr Gillespie's fate was linked to the state of the bilateral ties.
"Australia should respect our judicial sovereignty. This case has nothing to do with the bilateral relationship," he said.
Source: afr.com, Andew Tillett, June 15, 2020
Death penalty for Australian in line with law: China's Foreign Ministry
China’s foreign ministry said the case of an Australian citizen sentenced to death last week on drug smuggling charges has nothing to do with Beijing’s bilateral relations with Australia.
Karm Gilespie, a former actor in his mid-fifties, was arrested on New Year’s Eve in 2013 with more than 7.5kg of methamphetamine in his check-in luggage while attempting to board an international flight from Baiyun airport in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, according to media reports.
He was sentenced to death by the Guangzhou Intermediate People’s Court last week for drug smuggling.
“Applying the death penalty to drug crimes that cause extremely serious harm can help in deterring and preventing drug crimes,” ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said during a daily briefing.
China’s judicial institutions have proceeded according to Chinese law and in an independent manner, Zhao said. Australia should “earnestly respect China’s judicial sovereignty. And the above-mentioned case has nothing to do with bilateral relations,” he added.
China will “facilitate consular visits from the Australian side,” Zhao said.
Gilespie’s family asked for privacy and called on friends and acquaintances to refrain from speculating on his case “which we do not believe assists his case.”
Gilespie has 10 days to appeal his sentence.
Source:
shine.cn, Staff, June 16, 2020
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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde
