OTTAWA (NEWS 1130) – Global Affairs Canada says two Canadians, who have been held in a high-stakes diplomatic scuffle for two years, have not been tried in China.
The clarification comes after the Chinese foreign ministry suggested on Thursday Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor had been arrested, indicted, and tried.
“Canadian Embassy officials in Beijing have spoken directly with the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and confirmed that, contrary to what has been reported in the media this morning, there has been no development in the cases of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor,” says a statement from Global Affairs Canada.
“Officials have also confirmed that the confusion was caused by an inaccurate characterization of the process made by the Chinese MFA spokesperson. The two men were indicted on June 19, but have yet not gone to trial.”
BREAKING: Canada’s Global Affairs department confirms in a statement that Michael Kovrig and Michael’s Spavor have NOT gone to trial yet. Says confusion caused by “inaccurate characterization” from their Foreign spokesperson #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/GXsIDQnlt8
— Cormac Mac Sweeney (@cmaconthehill) December 10, 2020
Kovrig, a former diplomat, and Spavor, a businessman, have been confined since Dec. 10, 2018. They were arrested in China just days after Canada detained Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou.
China has said the two Michaels are being held on suspicion of committing acts harm to its national security but has never revealed the specifics and has given them extremely limited consular access. Their arrests are widely seen as retaliation for Meng’s detention.
Meng was taken into custody at Vancouver International Airport at the request of the U.S. on Dec. 1, 2018. She and Huawei are accused by the Americans of contravening U.S. sanctions on Iran — accusations they both deny. Meng is currently out on bail in Vancouver, facing extradition to the U.S..
Trial would have been surprising: St. Jacques
A former Canadian ambassador to China says it would have been very surprising if Kovrig and Spavor had already gone to trial.
“In fact under the bi-lateral consular agreement, the Chinese have to notify the embassy three days before the start of a trial, so if the two Michaels would have been tried already this would be completely contrary to the agreement, it would require a very strong protest,” Guy St. Jacques, ambassador from 2012 to 2016, tells NEWS 1130.
“And I think it would be surprising because the last consular visit, the virtual visit, that ambassador (Dominic) Barton had with them I think was only last week and, of course, a trial can be organized quickly and they just require a few hours to conclude that you are guilty because once you are officially charged, you are found guilty 99.9 per cent of the time.”
But St. Jacques says given that Kovrig and Spavor were charged in June, they should have had a trial by now.
“They are waiting because they are aware of the ongoing discussion between the U.S. Department of Justice and the legal team of Mrs. Meng,” St. Jacques predicts. “And I think also that the Chinese are pragmatic people, they know that there will be a new, U.S. administration so they are probably looking at all this and maybe putting a bit of pressure on Mrs. Meng.”
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Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that Justice Department lawyers have approached Huawei’s chief financial officer about the possibility of a so-called deferred prosecution agreement. The newspaper says in exchange for admitting wrongdoing, Meng would be allowed to leave Canada.
Neither U.S. Department of Justice or the Prime Minister’s office would comment on the report.
St. Jacques says the best outcome for Kovrig and Spavor would be for Meng to get some sort of deal.
“The Chinese could save face by saying there has been new evidence brought to the attention of the procurators, they have look at that, and on that basis ‘we have decided to expel the Canadians,'” St. Jacques adds.
It’s been two years
A colleague at Kovrig’s employer, the International Crisis Group, Praveen Madhiraju, tells NEWS 1130 they can’t believe it has been two years since the Micheals have been detained by Beijing.
“In a case that has really nothing to do with him or anything that he’s done. He’s essentially being held as collateral in a high-stakes game of hostage diplomacy,” he says.
Madhiraju notes very little information has been provided about what’s happened to their colleague.
“So far, Michael has only been allowed periodic consular visits and since the early part of 2020, those visits were restricted, in part, because of the coronavirus. They’ve more recently resumed in a virtual format, but that’s been his only real contact with the outside world, through his consular visits, and they’ve only been a few more recently,” he explains.
“The hard part is we don’t know enough, but we do know that he has not been able to see his family or his friends in two years. He did have one brief phone conversation with his father but otherwise his contact with the outside world has been extremely limited.”
-With files from The Canadian Press