File Photo: Xinhua

An Australian national, whose Chinese name might be transliterated as Kam Giles, was sentenced to death for drug smuggling in the first trial by a court in Guangzhou on June 10, the Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court revealed. The only other information from the court, said the person's property was confiscated. 

The person was found carrying more than 7,500 grams of meth in the person's luggage at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport on Dec 31, 2013, Yangcheng Evening News reported.

According to Chinese criminal law, the highest punishment for criminals who smuggle more than 50 grams of meth could be death.

China always pays great attention to the problem of drug smuggling and imposes sentences on drug smugglers strictly according to the law, Yu Lei, a chief research fellow at the Research Center for Pacific Island Countries at Liaocheng University, told the Global Times on Saturday. 

The sentence was handed down amid intensifying China-Australian ties, but Yu denied there is any connection between the sentence and bilateral ties, noting that China would not use the issue as a political bargaining chip.

Yu stressed the Australian drug smuggler's sentence confirms China's strict application of Chinese law.  

In January 2019, Canadian Robert Lloyd Schellenberg was sentenced to death by the Dalian Intermediate People's Court for smuggling more than 222 kilograms of meth.