Canadian jailed for 11 years on spying charges in China

A court in China found Canadian businessman Michael Spavor guilty of spying on Wednesday, sentencing him to 11 years in prison, in a decision likely to further undermine already poor relations between China and Canada.

Spavor, who for years ran a travel and cultural exchange business between China and North Korea, “was convicted of espionage and illegally providing state secrets”, Dandong city’s Intermediate People’s Court said in a statement.

“He was sentenced to 11 years in prison.”

The court said Spavor, whose closed-door trial in March lasted little more than two hours, would also be deported but did not say when, and confiscated some of his personal property.

Spavor is one of two Canadians who were detained in China in December 2018, shortly after Canada arrested Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Chinese telecoms giant Huawei, on an extradition request by the United States.

Michael Kovrig, an analyst with the International Crisis Group, also faces spying charges and was tried shortly after Spavor in March. He is still awaiting the verdict.

Canada has said the detentions are linked to Meng’s case, which China has denied.

Canada’s ambassador to China Dominic Barton told reporters over a video call that he was disappointed at the ruling and that Spavor and Kovrig were being detained arbitrarily.

The two Canadians have been held virtually incommunicado since they were first detained. Limited consular visits were stopped because of the coronavirus and only resumed in October, and neither man has been able to see lawyers or their family. Meng, meanwhile, was granted bail and is living in one of her Vancouver mansions while her case goes through the courts.

Spavor’s family say he is innocent of the accusations against him, and that he had done much as a businessman to “build constructive ties” between Canada, China and North Korea.

The verdict comes with Meng’s case due to conclude on August 20.

“The timing is undeniable,” said Al Jazeera’s Katrina Yu, who is in Beijing.

Observers say the likely verdicts and sentences for both Canadians will track Meng’s trial.

“If we see this as the beginning of a political bargaining process, the Chinese (are) likely to want to appear strong in the first instance,” Associate Professor Lynette Ong of the University of Toronto told AFP news agency ahead of the decision.

China’s courts are controlled by the Communist Party and have a near 100 percent conviction rate in criminal trials.

Spavor has 10 days to appeal the decision, but Yu said the process was “long, uncertain and unlikely to be successful”.

On Tuesday, a Chinese court rejected an appeal by Robert Schellenberg, a Canadian sentenced to death for drug smuggling.

Dominic Barton, Canada’s ambassador to China, condemned the ruling and called for clemency.