Beijing – The trial of Michael Kovrig, the Canadian detained for more than two years in China on charges of espionage, began on Monday, with relations between Ottawa and Beijing in free fall. The hearing takes place days after the closed-door trial of another Canadian, both detained in apparent retaliation for Canada’s arrest on a US extradition warrant of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou.
Kovrig, a former diplomat, was arrested in 2018 and formally accused last June of spying, at the same time as his compatriot, businessman Michael Spavor.
On Monday, police cordoned off an area outside the Beijing courthouse, as Canadian diplomats were denied entry and were rejected. A court official told reporters that no entry was allowed because the trial is a national security case.
Jim Nickel, in charge of business at the Canadian embassy in Beijing, told reporters he was “very concerned about the lack of access and transparency in the legal process”.
Representatives from 26 countries met in front of the building on Monday, Nickel said, and “lent their voice” for Kovrig’s immediate release.
The United States is “deeply concerned about the lack of minimum procedural protections afforded to the two Canadian citizens,” William Klein, deputy head of the US Embassy mission in Beijing, told the media outside the courtroom.
REUTERS
Canadian diplomats were also prevented from attending Spavor’s trial in the northern city of Dandong on Friday, which lasted less than three hours and ended without a verdict being announced.
After that hearing behind closed doors, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the arrest of the two men “completely unacceptable, as well as the lack of transparency surrounding judicial procedures”.
China’s Foreign Ministry defended on Monday that diplomats would be barred from entering the court and criticized those meeting outside as “very irrational”.
“Whether a few or dozens of diplomats are trying to get together and put pressure, it is interfering with China’s judicial sovereignty … and not something a diplomat should do,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Hua Chunying.
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Court dates for the two Canadians arrive when a Meng extradition hearing enters its final months, and next door high-level fiery conversations between the USA and China in Alaska.
Meng, whose father is the founder and CEO of Huawei, Ren Zhengfei, has been fighting extradition to the U.S. on charges that she and the company violated U.S. sanctions on Iran and other laws.
A year ago, the U.S. Department of Justice released accusations, naming Meng specifically, that accuse Huawei of orchestrating a successful “decades” scheme to steal trade secrets from U.S. technology companies.
While the Kovrig trial was still in progress late Monday afternoon, former Canadian ambassador to China, Guy Saint-Jacques, told AFP he expects the process to be short.
“China doesn’t even try to make it look like a real trial, as the evidence is not shared with the defense and the judge doesn’t even take time to analyze it,” he said before the hearing. “It just confirms that the process is pre-ordered by the Communist Party and this is a political case.”
China’s judicial system condemns the majority of people who are tried and the two men can be sentenced to life in prison if found guilty of “spying” and “providing state secrets”.
They have had almost no contact with the outside world since their detention, and virtual consular visits only resumed in October, after a nine-month hiatus that officials said was due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Beijing insisted that the arrest of the two Canadians is legal, but called Meng’s case “a purely political incident”.
“The message for the US is: if you want to help Canadians, make sure that Meng returns to China quickly,” said Saint-Jacques.