China says death sentence for Australian made by independent court

China's foreign ministry on Monday said that the death penalty sentence for an Australian man convicted of smuggling drugs last week was made independently by a local court, and had nothing to do with deteriorating ties between Beijing and Canberra. 

Karm Gilespie, an actor and financial investor, was arrested in 2013 at Baiyun Airport in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou with several kilograms of methamphetamines in his luggage. He was sentenced last Wednesday, confirmed in a one-sentence statement on the website of the Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court.