The Beijing City People’s Procuratorate filed a lawsuit against Kovrig on Friday for “spying on state secrets and intelligence.” The Dandong People’s Procuratorate also filed a public prosecution of Spavor for “spying and illegally giving state secrets.”
The two men were arrested in the weeks after the arrest in Meng Wanzhou, Vancouver, chief financial officer of Chinese technology company Huawei at the end of 2018, on charges brought in the United States.
US prosecutors want Meng to be tried on various charges, including bank fraud and violating US sanctions against Iran.
Outside mainland China, the new indictment will trigger fears in Hong Kong over the upcoming national security law, which Beijing will impose on the city, bypassing the local legislature.
This week, the G7 countries say in
joint statement that the proposed law can “limit and threaten the basic rights and freedoms of all residents (in Hong Kong) protected by the rule of law and the existence of an independent justice system.”
‘Arbitrary’ detention
Kovrig is a former diplomat in Beijing and works for the International Crisis Group (ICG). Spavor is the founder of Paektu Cultural Exchange, a company that helps facilitate travel to North Korea. He has helped former NBA player Dennis Rodman on his way to Pyongyang to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
The Canadian government has repeatedly described their detention as “arbitrary.” Family members and contacts of the two men described them being detained in poor conditions, and refused outside contact.
Guy Saint-Jacques, who served as Canada’s ambassador to China from 2012 to 2016, told CNN last year that Spavor was being held at a detention facility in the northeastern province of Dandong, sharing cells with 18 other detainees, with lights kept burning 24 hours a day and only 15 minutes from outside time. Kovrig was detained in Beijing, said Saint-Jacques, and nobody has had access to lawyers or their family members since they were first detained.
“In both cases they receive consular visits once a month, exactly 30 minutes, with someone there watching all discussions,” he said. “This mainly serves to give them news about their families, and give them books and other reading material. It is very difficult for them, they are waiting and they don’t know when and how they will be released.”
Someone familiar with the situation told CNN that Canadian diplomatic efforts have so far focused on efforts to resolve what remains a complex political engagement.
There is a greater geopolitical game between China and the United States, where Canada is somewhat caught in the middle, the person added, and two Canadians pay the price.
Saint-Jacques agreed, saying China’s problem was with the US, “but of course they did not dare to arrest former American diplomats or American diplomats who were on leave.”
He said that China had been shocked by the widespread international condemnation of his arrest of the two Canadians, but beyond garnering support from the allies, there was little that Ottawa could do. “It’s very difficult to find something because we don’t have much that the Chinese really want,” he said.
In a statement on the anniversary of his detention last year, the Spavor family said he had been “arrested as an unconscious human piece and unwilling to confront confrontation between the two superpowers and be swept away by geopolitical currents and forces outside his control.”
Shanshan Wang and Steve George from CNN contributed to the reporting.
