A 25-year-old New Zealander standing trial on charges of trying to smuggle methamphetamine yesterday testified that he traveled to China to buy a muscle-building supplement and did not check the package he purchased before trying to depart.
Peter Gardner, who also has Australian citizenship, was detained in the southern city of Guangzhou on Nov. 8 last year when police said he was trying to smuggle more than 30kg of methamphetamine out of China.
Gardner could face the death penalty if convicted.
The trial at the Guangzhou Intermediate People’s Court was broadcast live on a court Web site, but Gardner’s testimony in English was barely, if at all, audible.
A court interpreter gave an audible translation in Chinese.
Gardner seemed to argue that he did not knowingly smuggle drugs, though he also acknowledged wrongdoing and offered to remedy the situation by helping police identify what he referred to as Chinese suspects.
Gardner said he had traveled to China to buy several kilograms of a muscle-building supplement, “but I didn’t check the parcel after I got the delivery,” the translator quoted him as saying.
“The crime I committed affected my family and I would do anything that would help me in this situation, so I’d like to help the police to identify other suspects, and I’d like to point out the other Chinese suspects as soon as possible if police hand me photos for me to identify,” the translator quoted him as saying.
Gardner arrived yesterday morning at the court in a police truck.
Relatives and consular officials also attended the proceedings.
He was detained in Guangzhou in November last year along with a 22-year-old Australian woman who was later released.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the