Prime Minister John Key has asked China's president to consider New Zealand's opposition to the death penalty in the case of a Kiwi man facing drug charges in China.
Peter Gardner Photo: SUPPLIED
Peter Gardner was arrested at Guangzhou airport in November last year, when he was found to be carrying nearly 30 kilograms of methamphetamine. If found guilty he could face the death penalty.
New Zealand was opposed to the death penalty, and Mr Key said he asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to take that into consideration, when the pair met at the East Asia Summit in Malaysia yesterday.
"I didn't ask for him to not be treated appropriately. In other words, if he has broken the law he needs to be held to account for what is potentially a very serious issue with drugs trafficking.
"But what I did say to the Chinese president is New Zealand has a very strong view about the death penalty."
Mr Gardner said at his hearing in May that he had been duped by an intermediary who headed a large Australian gang.
He holds dual Australian and New Zealand nationality but entered China on his New Zealand passport, for what he said was intended to be a pick-up of athletic performance enhancing drugs, arranged by the Sydney intermediary.