A Chinese court has sentenced Canadian entrepreneur Michael Spavor to 11 years in prison for allegedly spying. China’s move to charge Spavor is seen as Beijing’s pressure campaign against the Canadian government over the arrest of an executive at tech giant Huawei by Canadian authorities.
Spavor and former Canadian diplomat Kovrig were detained in China in what Canada labeled as “hostage politics” after the Huawei executive, Meng Wanzhou, was arrested at the Vancouver airport in late 2018 at the request of U.S. authorities. Chinese authorities allege that Spavor was a conduit for intelligence and sensitive information provided to Michael Kovrig since 2017. Kovrig also was detained in December 2018 and tried on spying charges, though no word has been given about the verdict.
AP reports that a Canadian court will hear final arguments in the next few weeks over whether to hand Meng over to face U.S. criminal charges in connection with possible violations of trade sanctions on Iran.
Meng, the chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies Ltd. and daughter of the company’s founder, was arrested Dec. 1, 2018, in Vancouver on U.S. charges of lying to the Hong Kong arm of the British bank HSBC about possible dealings with Iran in violation of trade sanctions. Meng’s lawyers argue the case is politically motivated while China’s government criticized the arrest as part of U.S. efforts to hamper its technology development.
China has repeatedly demanded Meng’s immediate release and has also denied a direct connection between her case and the arrests of Spavor and Kovrig. But on Tuesday, a Chinese court rejected the appeal of a third Canadian whose 15-year prison sentence in a drug case was abruptly increased to the death penalty following Meng’s arrest. The case of Robert Schellenberg has been automatically appealed to China’s Supreme Court.
Balaji Subramanian 
Palak Dogra 
Sindhuri Sai