Trudeau vows to press China to free Canadian duo

OTTAWA • Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has vowed to keep up pressure on Beijing to release two Canadians after the trial of Michael Kovrig, one of the pair held in China on spying charges, ended on Monday with no verdict.

The hearing for the former diplomat came days after the closed-door trial of Canadian businessman Michael Spavor. Both have been detained for more than two years in apparent retaliation for Canada's arrest on a US extradition warrant of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou.

Kovrig, a former diplomat, was held in 2018 and formally charged last June with spying. Spavor was also charged with spying.

"We will continue to be very, very clear that their arbitrary detention is unacceptable. We will continue to demand their release," Mr Trudeau said.

He emphasised that there was no connection between sanctions unveiled by the European Union, the United States, Britain and Canada against China over its crackdown of its Uighur minority and the prosecution of the two Canadians.

Canadian Foreign Minister Marc Garneau said Ottawa is deeply troubled by the unacceptable ordeal faced by the two men, and called for "an immediate end to their arbitrary detention".

On Monday, police cordoned off an area outside the Beijing court as Canadian diplomats were denied entry and turned away.

Mr Jim Nickel, the charge d'affaires of Canada's embassy in Beijing, said he was "very troubled by the lack of access and lack of transparency in the legal process".

The trial lasted one day before the court issued a statement saying the proceeding had concluded and it would "choose a date to announce the verdict in accordance with the law". Kovrig and his lawyer were present in the court for the case of "spying on state secrets and intelligence for foreign powers", the statement said.

Representatives of 26 countries, including Australia, Britain, France, Germany and the US, gathered outside the building and were "lending their voice" for Kovrig's immediate release, Mr Nickel said.

A court official told reporters no entry was allowed because the trial is a national security case.

Canadian diplomats had also been barred from attending Spavor's trial in the Chinese city of Dandong last Friday, which lasted less than three hours and ended without a verdict.

China's Foreign Ministry defended the order to block the diplomats from entering the court, and criticised those gathering outside as "very unreasonable".

"Be it a few or dozens of diplomats trying to gather and exert pressure, it is an interference in China's judicial sovereignty... and not something that a diplomat should do," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Hua Chunying.

The court dates for the two Canadians come as an extradition hearing for Huawei executive Meng enters its final months, and alongside fiery high-level talks between the US and China in Alaska.

Meng has been fighting extradition to the US on charges that she and the company violated US sanctions on Iran and other laws.

Beijing has insisted that the detention of the two men is lawful, while calling Meng's case "a purely political incident".

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE