According to officials, China has officially charged two Canadians with spying 18 months after they were arrested during a spat involving Beijing and Ottawa.
The Canadians were detained moments after Huawei Executive, Meng Wanzhou was apprehended in Canada on a United States warrant. The detention is widely believed to be a retaliatory move from China.
The Supreme People’s Procuratorate disclosed that the prosecution of ex-diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor, who were “suspected of foreign espionage” and “providing state secrets” has begun.
This move happened weeks after a major ruling in the Meng case where it was ruled by a Canadian Judge that proceedings to extradite Meng to the United States will continue.
United States want Meng to be extradited so she can face trial on charges bordering on Huawei’s alleged violations of US sanctions against Iran.
Since the arrests, diplomatic ties and trades between Canada and China have recorded a significant drop.
The Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau while expressing concerns for their health in April said that the monthly consular visits for Kovrig and Spavor had been suspended since the advent of coronavirus disease in China but the Foreign Ministry of China has maintained that the pair are in perfect health condition and that the pair’s detention facility was “in a region that is not particularly affected by COVID-19”.
Meanwhile, people that are conversant with the matter have revealed that the pair had undergone hours of interrogation and were forced to sleep with lights on in the first six months of detention.
