China released “for health reasons” the two Canadians it detained in December 2018, who returned to Canada on Saturday while Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou returned to the Asian country under a deal with the American authorities, who had requested his extradition. .
As the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported last night, citing Chinese “national security” authorities, the two courts which tried and convicted Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor on espionage approved their “release on Saturday. on bail “after they requested it for health reasons. the reasons.
In addition to approving his release on bail “on the basis of medical diagnoses”, the courts ordered “a stay of his trials”, after which “the national security authorities were responsible for enforcing this decision,” the note said. .
Kovrig is a diplomat on leave who, at the time of his arrest, worked for the Crisis Group think tank, while Spavor is a businessman specializing in business with North Korea.
The two Canadians were detained in China in December 2018 in apparent retaliation for Meng’s arrest in Vancouver at the behest of the United States, which requested her extradition and charged her with fraud.
After his arrest, Meng was released on parole and lived with his family in one of the mansions he owns in Vancouver.
Meanwhile, the “Michaels” have remained in China in strict isolation for the past three years, according to the Canadian press, with limited visits from Canadian consular staff.
Beijing has always denied that the arrests of Canadians had anything to do with the Meng case.
ACCUSED OF STEALING STATE SECRETS
Spavor was sentenced in August this year to 11 years in prison, a fine and deportation. Kovrig’s conviction, whose trial took place in March, had not yet been made public.
According to Chinese courts, “Spavor took photos and videos of Chinese military equipment, material classified as state secret, and sent the documents to various people overseas,” Xinhua reports.
De Kovrig assures that between 2017 and 2018, “he entered China under false pretenses and collected a large number of secret documents related to national security through third parties. He also wrote reports on the basis of of this information and provided documents to outside organizations “. .
According to the authorities quoted by the state agency, the rights of the accused were “completely protected”.
“They confessed to their crimes and expressed their repentance in writing,” the note added.
Finally, the “two Michaels,” as Kovrig and Spavor are nicknamed in Canada, arrived in Calgary, Canada, around 6:00 am local time (12:00 GMT) on Saturday.
His release came shortly after Meng arrived from Canada to an agreement with US authorities to stay the legal process for fraud against him, which allowed him to return to China on Saturday.
Until now, no Chinese authority had mentioned the release of the “Michaels”. Yesterday, Chinese spokespersons ignored its existence and limited themselves to describing the Meng case as “political persecution” to “suppress Chinese technology companies.”
The simultaneous arrival on Saturday of the “Michaels” in their country, and of Huawei’s chief financial officer in theirs, marked the beginning of the end of a serious crisis which has undermined diplomatic relations between Ottawa and Beijing for three years. .
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