Australia says China death sentence for Karm Gillespie not considered retaliatory
- Cam Gillespie was arrested in 2013 at Baiyun Airport on charges of attempting to board an international flight with more than 7.5kg of methamphetamine
- Australia’s trade minister said death sentence shouldn’t be linked to ongoing friction over trade and the pandemic
The Guangzhou Intermediate People’s Court announced the sentencing of Cam Gillespie on Saturday, Australian Associated Press reported. Gillespie, who has been identified in some media reports as “Karm Gillespie”, was arrested with more than 7.5kg of methamphetamine in his check-in luggage in 2013 while attempting to board an international flight from Baiyun Airport in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, it said.
The sentencing comes amid increasing signs of a widening rift between the key trading partners after Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison led calls for an independent probe into the origins of Covid-19. Beijing responded with verbal attacks, accusing Australia of doing the bidding of the US. New tariffs on Australian barley and a ban on beef from four meat works have raised concerns in Canberra that China is retaliating with “economic coercion”.
Australia condemns the use of the death penalty and would continue to provide consular assistance and make representations on behalf of Gillespie, Birmingham said Sunday in a television interview with Sky News. Asked whether the sentence was retaliation over bilateral tensions, Birmingham said “we shouldn’t necessarily view it as such”.
China has made extensive use of the death penalty and carried out sentences over the past decade on citizens from the Philippines, Japan and other parts of the world, he said.