Canadian Michael Spavor on trial behind closed doors in China for spying
A Canadian businessperson charged with espionage in China was tried behind closed doors on Friday, reports said, more than two years after he was unexpectedly taken into custody for alleged spying.
Michael Spavor’s trial reportedly started at 10 a.m. in northeastern Liaoning province and was over before noon, with the judge saying that the ruling would be released at a later date. Canada confirmed that its officials were denied access throughout.
News of the private hearing was as sudden as the arrests of Spavor and fellow countryman Michael Kovrig in late 2018, which followed Canadian police’s detention of Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei, on a request from the United States.
Spavor stood trial on charges of spying for outside forces and illegally providing national secrets, news wires said. Kovrig would be tried next Monday, reports cited Chinese authorities as saying.
The abrupt action coincided with the start of China’s first high-level meeting with the U.S. under the new White House administration, and spawned talk of Beijing adopting a “hostage diplomacy” strategy to put pressure on the Washington government.
On Friday morning, police were seen stationed at Dandong Intermediate People’s Court and cordoning off the premises, news wires reported. Dandong is the biggest Chinese border city and faces North Korea, which Spavor used to promote as a travel destination before he was arrested.
China-based embassy representatives of Canada, Australia, Denmark, the Netherlands and the U.S. waited outside the building as they were not allowed to go in.
Global Affairs Canada, the country’s foreign department, said that it had made a request to the Chinese authorities to attend the court proceedings but did not receive permission. The Chinese notice specified that the trial would not be open to the media or members of the public, Canada said. It expressed disappointment at the arrangement and the lack of transparency.
Meanwhile, Spavor’s family called for the unconditional release of both men, in a statement issued via Canadian Broadcasting Corporation on Thursday.
“Michael is just an ordinary Canadian businessman who has done extraordinary things to build constructive ties between Canada, China and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” the family said.” He loved living and working in China and would never have done anything to offend the interests of China or the Chinese people.”
Richard Atwood, chairperson of the International Crisis Group, released a statement calling for the immediate release of Kovrig after “830 days in jail.”
Kovrig was a Canadian diplomat who later worked for the ICG as a consultant. The arrests of Kovrig and Spavor took place in December 2018 but they were not formally charged with espionage until June 2020.
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