BEIJING (Reuters) – Canada’s ambassador to China said he was disappointed after a Chinese court sentenced Canadian businessman Michael Spavor to 11 years in prison for espionage, in a case seen in Ottawa and Washington as part of a wider diplomatic spat with Beijing.
Spavor and another Canadian, Michael Kovrig, are being detained arbitrarily and Canada will continue to call for their release, said Dominic Barton, speaking to reporters via video call from the northeastern city of Dandong, where Spavor was sentenced.
Barton said he interprets the sentence to mean that Spavor will be deported after serving 11 years. Spavor’s sentencing comes as lawyers in Canada representing the chief financial officer of Chinese telecoms giant Huawei make a final push to convince a court there not to extradite her to the United States.
Proceedings against Canadian citizens were not a coincidence, said Barton.
(Reporting by Yew Lun Tian and Gabriel Crossley; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
