Canadian tour organiser jailed for 11 years in China on spy charges

Updated August 11, 2021 â€" 1.46pmfirst published at 1.04pmNormal text sizeLarger text sizeVery large text size

Beijing: A Chinese court has sentenced a Canadian tour organiser to 11 years in prison for spying, a ruling that appeared to be timed to show Beijing’s anger over extradition proceedings in Vancouver against Huawei’s chief financial officer.

Michael Spavor, who organised tours to North Korea, was sentenced after being found guilty of stealing and illegally providing state secrets to other countries, the Dandong Intermediate People’s Court said in a statement Wednesday. Spavor had waited for the verdict for five months since a two-hour trial held behind closed doors in March.

The sentence could form a guide to what may be faced by Australian writer Yang Hengjun, who was tried for espionage behind closed doors in May. 

Michael Spavor, centre, is seen with former NBA star Dennis Rodman, left, at Beijing airport in 2013, before a flight to North Korea. Credit:AP

The court said Spavor would also be deported, without specifying whether it was before or after he served his sentence.

The decision was part of flurry of court proceedings on both sides of this Pacific this week, as Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou made a final push in Vancouver to fight US-led extradition efforts. Spavor is among a handful of Canadians in China facing stiff punishments in the wake of Meng’s December 2018 arrest, which the Communist Party views as a politically motivated attack on one of its chief technology champions.

On Tuesday, China upheld a death sentence for Canadian Robert Lloyd Schellenberg, who had seen his punishment for drug-trafficking increased to death on appeal in January 2019. Canadian Foreign Minister Marc Garneau condemned the decision to reject Schellenberg’s latest appeal and urged Chinese authorities to grant him clemency.

Canadian diplomats said they viewed the decisions as politically driven. “I don’t think it’s a coincidence that things are happening right now while events are going on in Vancouver,” Canadian Ambassador Dominic Barton told reporters in China on Tuesday.

Spavor was detained along with Michael Kovrig - a Hong Kong-based analyst at the International Crisis Group and former Canadian diplomat - days after Meng’s arrest and has been jailed ever since. The Canadian side hasn’t received any indication on the timing of Kovrig’s verdict, according to Barton.

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Spavor has the right to appeal the judgment. But Chinese courts rarely overturn criminal judgments, and his fate could rest on deal-making among Beijing, Ottawa and Washington at a time when Beijing’s relations with Western powers are particularly tense.

The sentence will fuel anger in Canada, where public attitudes toward the Chinese government have hardened over the prosecution of the two Canadians. In particular, many critics have contrasted the harsh conditions the Canadians have faced with Meng’s luxurious lifestyle.

By contrast, in Vancouver, Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Huawei, stands in front of one of her two mansions, where she is under house arrest. She wears an electronic bracelet on her ankle and is free to travel around the city. Credit:Canadian Press

The “Canadian Michaels” have been held in secret jails for more than two years, cut off from their families and with limited legal and consular access. The two were tried in short and opaque trials in March. Meng, meanwhile, has been out on a bail of $10 million Canadian dollars ($10 million) in a seven-room mansion in a rarefied Vancouver neighbourhood, where she has had private painting lessons and massages. She wears a GPS tracker on her left ankle and has been able to move around Vancouver.

Chinese officials have accused Canada of entrapping Meng and have denied that Spavor and Kovrig are being kept as hostages to pressure Ottawa to let Meng return to China.

“This is nothing short of a political incident in which Canada played a very disgraceful role as an accomplice,” a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Hua Chunying, said in March about Meng’s case. “We urge the Canadian side to immediately release Ms Meng Wanzhou.”

But Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said that Spavor and Kovrig were arrested on “trumped-up charges” as “an attempt to try and pressure us to release the executive,” and he has defended Meng’s detention as simply an application of the rule of law and Canadian extradition treaty obligations with the United States.

People convicted of serious violations of the section of law cited by Chinese authorities face between 10 years and life in prison.

Bloomberg, the New York Times

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