The trial of a Canadian man detained for more than two years in China on espionage charges has taken place, with relations between Ottawa and Beijing in freefall.
The hearing in the case of Michael Kovrig came days after the closed-door trial of another Canadian man, with both detained in apparent retaliation for Canada’s arrest of the Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou under a US extradition warrant.
Kovrig, a former diplomat, was detained in 2018 and formally charged last June with allegedly spying at the same time as his compatriot, the businessman Michael Spavor.
On Monday, police cordoned off an area outside the Beijing court as Canadian diplomats were denied entry and turned away. Jim Nickel, the charge d’affaires of the Canadian embassy in Beijing, said he was “very troubled by the lack of access and lack of transparency in the legal process”.
The trial lasted one day before an early evening statement from the court said the process had concluded and it would “choose a date to announce the verdict in accordance with the law”. Kovrig and his lawyer were present in court, the statement said, for the case of “spying on state secrets and intelligence for foreign powers”.
Representatives of 26 countries gathered outside the building on Monday, Nickel said, and were “lending their voice” for Kovrig’s immediate release.
A court official told reporters no entry was allowed because the trial was a national security case.
Canadian diplomats were also barred from attending Spavor’s trial in the northern city of Dandong on Friday, which lasted less than three hours and ended without any verdict being announced after a similar court statement was given.
After that closed-door hearing the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, called the two men’s detention “completely unacceptable, as is the lack of transparency around these court proceedings”.
China’s foreign ministry on Monday defended the blocking of diplomats from entering the court and criticised those gathering outside as “very unreasonable”.
“Be it a few or dozens of diplomats trying to gather and exert pressure, it is an interference in China’s judicial sovereignty … and not something that a diplomat should do,” said the foreign ministry spokesperson, Hua Chunying.
The court dates for the two Canadians came as an extradition hearing for Meng entered its final months, and alongside fiery high-level talks between the US and China in Alaska.
Meng, whose father is the Huawei founder and chief executive Ren Zhengfei, has been fighting extradition to the US on charges that she and the company allegedly violated US sanctions on Iran and other laws.
As Kovrig’s trial took place on Monday afternoon, a former Canadian ambassador to China Guy Saint-Jacques, told AFP he expected proceedings would be short.
“China does not even try to make this look like a real trial as evidence is not shared with the defence and the judge does not even take the time to review it,” he said ahead of the hearing. “It just confirms that the process is preordained by the Communist party and this is a political case.”
China’s judicial system convicts most people who stand trial and the two men face up to life in prison if found guilty of “espionage” 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 authorities said was due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Beijing has insisted the detention of the two Canadians is lawful, while calling Meng’s case “a purely political incident”.
Saint-Jacques said: “The message to the USA is: if you want to help the Canadians, make sure that Meng is returned quickly to China.”