By Abdul Kimera
On Wednesday, 11th, August 2021, Canadian Michael Spavor was sentenced to 11-years in prison on espionage charges in a closed door court session in Beijing.
Mr. Spavor, a renown Canadian business man, was arrested and detained in 2018 on allegations of being an intelligence contact of Mr. Kovrig a Canadian diplomat when he took photos that included military aircrafts on airports in China.
Canadian prime minister Justine Trudeau in a statement issued said that their citizens sentences are related to arrest of Huawei executive which is absolutely unjust and unacceptable.
Meng Wanzhou is the chief financial officer of the most prominent technology firm and also a daughter to Huawei’s founder and China’s most prominent business man Ren Zhengfei.
She was arrested in 2018 in Canada on extradition request by the United States of America on alleged charges of lying about dealing with Iran hence violating there trade sanctions with the Islamic republic.
As Mrs. Meng awaits her extradition case outcome, she moves freely around the city but with a tracking device on her ankle, she also receives messages and also engages in shopping which isn’t the case with the counterparts that are confined to cramped cells and restricted some food back in China.
Since no evidence has so-far been publicly presented by the Chinese government on these Canadians, the north American country believes this is not coincidence and that all this is transparent pressure designed to force them release Ms. Meng.
It should also be remembered that Canada was one of the countries that openly criticized China on it’s genocidal oppression against its muslim Uyghur population and also the brutal crackdown in HongKong an act that since then soured diplomatic relations of these two countries.
Over 25 countries representatives including that of United Kingdom, U.S.A and Japan gathered at the Canadian embassy in Beijing in protest of Spavor.
Michael Spavor has 10 days to appeal to this sentence but according to the status quo in this Asian biggest country, chances are very low that the sentence can be overturned.
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