Second Canadian accused of spying goes on trial in Beijing
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Mr Jim Nickel (wearing cap), charge d'affaires of the Canadian embassy in Beijing, and Mr William Klein (with red scarf), charge d'affaires of the US embassy, outside Beijing's Intermediate People's Court, where the trial of Canadian Michael Kovrig was being held, yesterday. The diplomats were not allowed to attend the trial.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
BEIJING • The trial of Michael Kovrig, who has been held in China for more than two years on espionage charges, started yesterday in a closed courtroom in the Chinese capital, days after Washington raised concerns over his case at tense bilateral talks with China in Alaska.
China arrested Kovrig, a former diplomat, and fellow Canadian Michael Spavor in December 2018, soon after Canadian police detained Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Chinese tech company Huawei Technologies, on a US warrant.
Beijing insists the detentions are not linked to the detention of Meng, who remains under house arrest in Vancouver as she fights extradition to the US.
"We've requested access to Michael Kovrig's hearing repeatedly but that access is being denied" over national security reasons, Mr Jim Nickel, charge d'affaires of the Canadian Embassy in China, told reporters outside the Beijing court after the trial began.
"Now we see that the court process itself is not transparent. We're very troubled by this."
In a show of solidarity, 28 diplomats from 26 nations, including the US, Britain, Germany, Australia, the Netherlands and Czech Republic, turned up yesterday outside the court, which was marked by a heavy police presence.
President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken "have said that in dealing with the cases of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, the United States will treat these two individuals as if they were American citizens", Mr William Klein, charge d'affaires of the US Embassy in China, told reporters as he stood beside Mr Nickel.
Another diplomat, who declined to be named as she was not authorised to speak on the record about the Canadians' trial, said: "We are here to show solidarity. Arbitrary detention is not the way."
More than 50 countries signed a declaration last month to condemn the arbitrary detention of foreign citizens for political purposes.
Last Friday, Spavor, a businessman, stood trial in a closed courtroom in the north-eastern city of Dandong. That court said it would set a date later for a verdict.
Canadian and other diplomats were not allowed to attend Spavor's trial on what China said were national security grounds - a lack of transparency that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called "completely unacceptable".
Observers have said the likely convictions of the two men could ultimately facilitate a diplomatic agreement whereby they are released and sent back to Canada. Chinese courts have a conviction rate of over 99 per cent.
"Michael and Michael Spavor are innocent Canadians caught up in a bigger geopolitical dispute," Kovrig's wife Vina Nadjibulla told Reuters. "Their detention is profoundly unjust and our focus must remain on securing their freedom."
Spavor's trial took place as the US and China held rancorous high-level talks in Alaska.
The US raised the issue during the talks, a senior Biden administration official said, including its concerns that diplomats were being barred from the courtroom in Spavor's trial.
REUTERS