Canadian Michael Spavor sentenced to 11 years in Chinese prison for espionage – National | Globalnews.ca

A Canadian man detained in China for over two and a half years has been convicted for espionage by a Chinese court and sentenced to 11 years in prison.

A guilty verdict in the case of Michael Spavor, who was detained by Chinese authorities in 2018, was announced by a local court in the northeastern Chinese city of Dandong on Tuesday.

Espionage is punishable in China by life in prison with a minimum sentence of 10 years.

Spavor along with Michael Kovrig was detained in China in December 2018 —  in apparent retaliation — just days after Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou was arrested in Vancouver by RCMP at the behest of American authorities.

The U.S. has charged Meng with violating sanctions on doing business with Iran and other counts of corporate espionage, and is seeking her extradition. Meng and Huawei, along with Beijing, have denied any allegations of wrongdoing.

The two Michaels were charged with espionage in June 2019.

While China has denied that Kovrig and Spavor’s arrests were a retaliatory measure, officials had suggested that the pair could be released if Meng is allowed to return home to China and the case against her is dropped. Canada has refused to entertain such an exchange.

Kovrig and Spavor both faced closed-door trials over spying charges in March that ended without verdicts. Canadian officials were barred from attending both trials.

As of Tuesday, there was no word on a decision for Kovrig.

This is breaking news story. More to come….