BEIJING (Reuters) – The trial of Michael Kovrig, who has been held in China for more than two years on espionage charges, began in a closed courtroom in Beijing on Monday, days after the United States expressed concern over his case during tense talks with China. in Alaska.
China arrested Kovrig, a former diplomat, and fellow Canadian Michael Spavor in December 2018, shortly after Canadian police detained Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Chinese technology company Huawei Technologies, on a U.S. warrant.
Beijing maintains that the detention is not related to the detention of Meng, who remains under house arrest in Vancouver while fighting extradition to the United States.
“We have repeatedly requested access to Michael Kovrig’s trial, but access is denied,” for national security reasons, Jim Nickel, the Canadian embassy’s indictment in China, told reporters outside the court in Beijing after the trial began. “Now we see that the court process itself is not transparent. We are very upset about this. ”
In a show of solidarity, 28 diplomats from 26 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic, showed up outside Beijing Intermediate Court on Monday, marked by a heavy police presence. .
“(US) President (Joe) Biden and (Secretary of State Antony) Blinken said that in dealing with the affairs of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, the United States will treat these two individuals as if they were US citizens,” William Klein said. , prosecutor of the US Embassy in China, told reporters as he stood next to Nickel.
“We are here to show solidarity. Arbitrary detention is not the way, “another diplomat told Reuters and did not want to be named because she was not authorized to speak on the record about the Canadian trial.
The Canadian side has assembled a group of diplomats to “point fingers” and “knowingly interfered with China’s judicial sovereignty,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hua Chunying.
More than 50 countries signed a declaration in February condemning the arbitrary detention of foreign nationals for political purposes.
Some diplomats took off their face masks as they posed for a group photo outside the courthouse, with everyone shouting which country they represent to help reporters identify them.
On Friday, a businessman, Spavor, also stood trial in a closed courtroom in the northeastern city of Dandong. The court said it would later set a date for sentencing.
Canadians and other diplomats were not allowed to attend Spavor’s trial on China’s national security grounds, a lack of transparency that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called “completely unacceptable.”
Observers said the likely conviction of the two men could eventually facilitate a diplomatic deal in which they would be released and sent back to Canada.
Chinese courts have a conviction rate of more than 99%.
“Michael and Michael Spavor are innocent Canadians caught in a major geopolitical dispute,” Kovrig’s wife, Vina Nadjibulla, told Reuters.
“Their detention is extremely unfair and our focus must remain on securing their freedom.”
Spavor’s trial took place when the United States and China were having difficult high-level talks in Alaska. A senior Biden government official raised the issue during the talks, including his concern that diplomats would be expelled from the courtroom during Spavor’s trial.
Reporting by Yew Lun Tian, Tony Munroe and Gabriel Crossley in Beijing and David Ljunggren in Ottawa; writing by Se Young Lee; Edited by Giles Elgood, Gerry Doyle and Nick Macfie