China sentences Canadian Michael Spavor to 11 years in prison for espionage

Canadian Michael Spavor, 44, has been convicted in China of espionage and illegally handing over state secrets to foreign forces, and has been sentenced to 11 years in prison.

The businessman had been arrested at his home in Dandong city, on the border with North Korea, in December 2018, immediately after Canada arrested Meng Wanzhou, Huawei's chief financial officer and daughter of Huawei's founder. technology giant, at the request of the United States, which is seeking his extradition for fraud.

More information

• China upholds Canadian death sentence for drug trafficking

In addition to Spavor, China has also held another Canadian, former diplomat Michael Kovrig, under arrest since December 2018, tried in March for espionage as his fellow citizen, but still awaiting sentencing.

The arrest of the “two Michaels”, as they have been dubbed in diplomatic circles in Beijing, has been described by human rights organizations as an episode of “hostage diplomacy” by China, in retaliation for the detention of the Huawei executive.

The cases of the Canadians and Meng represent one of the factors of confrontation between China and the United States and their allies, in increasingly tense relations and greater rivalry, especially as a result of the commercial and technological war launched during Donald's term. Trump and the start of the coronavirus pandemic last year.

The announcement of the sentence has elicited the immediate rejection of the Government of Canada.

His prime minister, Justin Trudeau, has called the trial and sentence "absolutely unacceptable and unfair."

"The verdict against Mr. Spavor comes after more than two and a half years of arbitrary detention, a lack of transparency in the legal process and a trial that has not met the minimum standards required by international law," he added.

Although the closed-door trial against Spavor took place in March, the sentence has now been announced, on the eve of Canadian courts ruling on Meng's extradition.

The businessman, who organized cultural exchanges with North Korea, will now have two weeks to appeal the conviction.

If the appeal is upheld, the case will go to the Chinese Supreme Court, where it may spend years.

Join EL PAÍS now to follow all the news and read without limits

Subscribe here

As announced on Wednesday by the Dandong City Intermediate Court, in addition to the prison sentence, Spavor, a businessman closely related to North Korea, will have to pay a fine of 50,000 yuan.

The ruling also mentions that he will be deported, although it does not specify when.

The Canadian Embassy in Beijing considers that the expulsion will occur when the prisoner has completed his sentence.

A day earlier, a court in Liaoning province, in northeast China, upheld the death sentence against fellow Canadian Robert Schellenberg, who had been found guilty of planning the shipment of 225 kilos of methamphetamine to Australia.

Schellenberg had been initially sentenced to 15 years in prison, but two months after the defendant appealed, his sentence was increased to capital punishment.

After hearing the sentence, the Canadian ambassador to China, Dominic Barton, reiterated by videoconference from Dandong the position of his Government that the arrests of Spavor and Kovrig have been "arbitrary" and declared himself "very disappointed" by the sentence against businessman.

The decisions against Canadian citizens, he considered, have not been a fluke.

For its part, in a statement, the US Embassy in Beijing has denounced that the trials against Spavor and Kovrig represent an attempt by China to use human beings as an instrument of pressure.

Beijing denies that the Kovrig and Spavor cases are related to Meng's, although it has warned of "consequences" if Huawei's CFO and Ren Zhengfei's daughter are not released.

Meng was arrested in December 2018 while making a stopover in Vancouver, at the request of the United States, which claims her for fraud and violation of this country's sanctions against Iran. Since then, the executive remains under house arrest in one of her luxury mansions in the Canadian city. By contrast, Canadian citizens awaited their sentences in detention centers where the lights are permanently on and access to exercise and fresh air is highly rationed. They have had minimal access to their diplomatic representatives.

The trial against Meng has now entered its final phase and his lawyers prepare their closing arguments before the court decides whether to proceed with extradition to the United States. If so, Huawei's CFO could appeal, a process that could also drag on for years.