China opens trial against Canadian accused of espionage

China on Monday opened a trial against former Canadian diplomat, Michael Kovrig, who has been held on espionage charges for over two years, less than a week after it opened proceedings against compatriot Michael Spavor.

Kovrig’s trial opened behind closed doors in Beijing. Diplomats from more than two dozen countries, including Germany, attempted in vain to gain access to the proceeding.

Many legal observers say the two diplomats were pawns caught in a fight between Washington and Beijing.

Kovrig and Spavor, whose trial opened on Friday, were arrested in December 2018 following the arrest of Meng Wanzhou, the Chief financial officer of the Chinese telecom giant Huawei, in Canada at the instigation of U.S. authorities.

Some diplomats saw the case as a “retaliation” for Meng’s arrest and accuse Beijing of “hostage diplomacy.”

The charges d’affaires at the Canandian embassy in Beijing, Jim Nickel, said Kovrig had been arbitrarily detained.

“And now we see that the court process itself is not transparent. We are very troubled by this.

“The reason that has been given to us while we are being denied access to our citizen facing trial is that this is a so-called national security case and therefore it is a closed case, a closed court room,” Nickel added.

At the time of his arrest, Kovrig was working as an expert for an International Crisis Group in China.

Spavor, whose trial opened in the north-eastern Chinese city of Dandong, last week, ran a cultural exchange company with North Korea in China.

Both defendants face long prison terms if convicted.