Friends of an Australian actor and motivational speaker given a death sentence in China are calling for his release.
Karm Gilespie was sentenced to death by a court in Guangzhou for drug smuggling last Wednesday, but news of the verdict only reached Australia on Saturday.
He was arrested in the city in 2013, attempting to board an international flight with more than 7.5 kilograms of methamphetamine in his luggage.
In a Facebook post, Mr Gilespie's friend Roger James Hamilton said: "Knowing the love he had (and has) for his wife and his children, this is not a man that deserves to lose his life."
Mr Hamilton said Mr Gilespie "suddenly dissapeared" around seven years ago.
"We spent a few years trying to find out how he could disappear so suddenly and so entirely. After that, we resigned ourselves to the idea that he had left because he wanted to start a new life."
Another of Mr Gilespie's friends, Jill Parris, said she was in "total emotional pain" after finding out what had happened to him.
"It just was not in his character to not communicate with me, nor was he found anywhere on the internet. He vanished," she wrote on Facebook.
"This is inhumane. Bring my friend home! He belongs home."
According to the LinkedIn page of Mr Gilespie, he was a Melbourne-based actor who had been on television shows Blue Heelers and The Man.
After finishing up with acting, he went into motivational speaking.
The federal government on Sunday said it does not necessarily view his sentencing as connected to ongoing tensions between Australia and China.
Tensions further flared this week when the Chinese government warned international students thinking of studying in Australia of "racist incidents against Asians".
But when asked if the strained relationship had affected Mr Gilespie's case, Minister for Trade and Tourism Simon Birmingham said he didn't think so.
"We shouldn't necessarily view it as such," he told Sky News on Sunday morning.
Senator Birmingham said the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade was providing Mr Gilespie with consular support, and Australia continues to oppose capital punishment in all circumstances.
"This is a reminder to all Australians, as is often the case when these sorts of consular cases come up, that Australian laws don't apply overseas. That other countries have much harsher penalties, particularly in relation to matters such as drug trafficking," he said.
"But, obviously, this is very distressing for Mr Gilespie and his loved ones, and our government will continue to provide consular assistance to him. And, of course, we'll continue to make representations, as we do right around the world, against the use of the death penalty."
Mr Gilespie has 10 days to appeal his sentence.
However, Donald Rothwell, a professor of international law at the Australian National University, said the chances of the appeal being granted are slim.
“There would be appeal options open. But it needs to be acknowledged that the chances of success for appeal on criminal matters before Chinese courts are exceptionally low - somewhere in the vicinity of one per cent,” he told SBS News.
On Saturday, a DFAT spokesperson said it was disappointed by the court's verdict.
"We are deeply saddened to hear of the verdict made in his case," the spokesperson said.
"Australia opposes the death penalty, in all circumstances for all people. We support the universal abolition of the death penalty and are committed to pursuing this goal through all the avenues available to us."
The relationship between China and Australia is deteriorating (Getty) Source: Getty
Foreigners previously executed by China for drug charges include a Japanese national in 2014, a Filipina in 2013, and a Briton in 2009.
Last year, China sentenced two Canadians to death for drug-related crimes following the arrest in Vancouver of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou.
Their detention was seen by some as a retaliatory move by Beijing for the proceedings against Meng.
Robert Lloyd Schellenberg, another Canadian, received the death sentence after a sudden retrial in which the court deemed his previous 15-year prison sentence too lenient.
New Zealander Peter Gardner is still awaiting sentencing after allegedly attempting to smuggle methamphetamine out of Guangzhou's Baiyun Airport in 2014.
With AAP.
