Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has confirmed the release of two Canadian citizens detained for spying in China since 2018

Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, were released from China, where they had been held since the end of 2018, and they began to return home, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced after the release in Canada of Huawei leader Meng Wanzhou.

“About 12 minutes ago, the plane carrying Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor left Chinese airspace and headed for Canada,” Trudeau said at a press conference.

The Two Michael, as they are called in Canada, they had been arrested and jailed for espionage in the days following Canada’s detention of Huawei leader Meng Wanzhou.

Arrests seemingly tit for tat relations between Canada and China have deteriorated.

Kovrig and Spavor were tried in March of this year. In August, Spavor was sentenced to 11 years in prison, while no decision has been made in Kovrig’s case.

Trudeau had previously called Spavor’s sentence as “unacceptable and unfair” and said the accusations were “fabricated”.

Michael Kovrig, who was convicted by the Chinese courts of stealing state secrets last March but whose verdict is still unknown, allegedly “gathered a lot of undisclosed information related to China’s national security”, according to the status log World time.

For its part, Spavor was convicted last August for “providing state secrets” foreigners and, according to this source, he would have photographed “state secrets and second level intelligence”.

“We discovered that (Spavor) he had taken photos and videos of Chinese military equipment on several occasions and illegally provided some of these photos to people outside of China. “, specifies the version of the source cited by state media.

Spavor’s conviction drew several criticisms within the international community, as It came at a time when the equally controversial case of Chinese tech firm Huawei’s CFO, Meng Wanzhou, was being clarified in Canada. and a day after the death sentence was announced for Robert Lloyd Schellenberg of Canada for drug trafficking.

Before Trudeau’s announcement, Canadian judge terminates extradition proceedings against Meng and lifted bail conditions, allowing him to return to China for the first time since his arrest at Vancouver International Airport at the request of US authorities on December 1, 2018.

The decision of the Canadian judge this followed an agreement he made with the United States Department of Justice to drop the fraud charges against him.

(With information from AFP and EFE)

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