The trial of Canadian Michael Kovrig, imprisoned for more than two years in China for “spying”, began Monday morning March 22 in Beijing, announced a senior official of the Embassy of Canada. This trial comes three days after that in Dandong (northeast) of his compatriot Michael Spavor, which ended in just over two hours without a verdict being made public. The two men were arrested in December 2018 shortly after the arrest in Canada of a leader of Chinese telecoms giant Huawei, at the request of the United States.
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Ottawa accuses Beijing of having arrested its two nationals as a reprisal, which Beijing denies. As in the first trial on Friday, officials from the Canadian Embassy in China were not allowed to attend the hearing. An official at the Beijing Number Two Intermediate People’s Court, where Michael Kovrig is on trial, told reporters that the “National security”, the public was not allowed to attend the trial. “We are very concerned about this denial of access and the lack of transparency of the entire judicial process”Canadian Embassy charge d’affaires Jim Nickel said after being barred from entering the courthouse shortly after 9 a.m. (0100 GMT), the time the trial was due to begin.
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He nevertheless welcomed the presence of diplomats from 26 countries, including Germany, the United States, France and Great Britain. These diplomats posed for the photographers in front of the building, before applauding Jim Nickel, who had just thanked them for their support to Canada. The Canadian diplomat said he expected the trial to continue into the afternoon.
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