Canadian national gets 11 years for espionage

Canadian national Michael Spavor was sentenced to 11 years in prison and had 50,000 yuan (US$7,712) of his personal property confiscated by a court in northeast China's Liaoning Province on Wednesday.

Spavor was found guilty of foreign espionage and the illegal provision of state secrets by the Intermediate People's Court of Dandong City in Liaoning, according to a statement on the court's website. He will also be expelled.

Beijing-based lawyer Mo Shaoping told Reuters that deportation generally takes place after the person has finished serving the sentence but may happen earlier for special cases.

Spavor was accused of passing along sensitive information to another Canadian, former diplomat Michael Kovrig, beginning in 2017.

Canadian ambassador to China, Dominic Barton, who was present in the courtroom for the verdict, said prosecutors showed the court evidence including photos "at airports ... places where one should not take photos and there had been some that included some military aircraft."

Spavor was detained in December 2018 along with Kovrig. They were formally charged with spying in June last year, and their separate trials took place in March. Kovrig's verdict is to be announced at an unspecified date.

Spavor has two weeks to decide whether to appeal, Barton said.

Spavor was mainly based in Dandong, a Chinese city bordering the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, and had extensive links with the DPRK in tourism and other commercial ventures.

Barton met with Spavor after the sentencing and said he sent three messages: "Thank you for all your support, it means a lot to me. Two, I am in good spirits. And three, I want to get home."

China has rejected the suggestion that the cases of the Canadians in China are linked to Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou's case in Canada. Its foreign ministry has said China's judicial organs are handling the cases independently in accordance with the law, and that the incident of Meng and the cases of the two Canadian citizens are completely different. 

Meng was charged with misleading HSBC Holdings about Huawei's business dealings in Iran, potentially causing the bank to violate American economic sanctions against Tehran.