Canada requests clemency for citizen sentenced to death in China

Canada has officially asked China to spare its citizen, Robert Lloyd Schellenberg's life after he was handed a death penalty in a drug trafficking case.

"We have already spoken with China's ambassador to Canada and requested clemency," Sputnik quoted Canada's Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland as saying on Tuesday.

She further sounded all Canadians bound for China to keep risks in mind while travelling to the Asian nation in the wake of the judgement against its citizen.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had earlier said that he was extremely concerned about the turn of events in Schellenberg's case, which coincided with a process in Canada against a senior executive of China's telecom giant Huawei, Meng Wanzhou.

The death sentence was handed over to the Canadian citizen on January 14, when he appealed the 15-year jail term given to him on charges of drug-smuggling in 2016.

The Canadian was reportedly arrested in 2014 in China.

Schellenberg has repeatedly denied the charges levelled against him by China. He now has 10 days to appeal the verdict.