The Chinese Embassy in Canada refutes Canada’s “microphone diplomacy” and “double standards” in the Canadian citizen case

  China News Service, Toronto, March 22. The spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy in Canada issued a statement on March 22 on the Canadian Foreign Minister’s statement concerning the Canadian citizen Kovrig and Michael’s case. Grouping to put pressure on China, this wrong approach has not been in the past and will never succeed in the future.

  The embassy spokesperson said that Canadian Foreign Minister Garno issued a statement on the Canadian citizen Kovrig and Michael's case on March 22, and once again made irresponsible remarks on China's handling of related cases in accordance with the law, and grossly interfered with China's judicial sovereignty.

China expresses its strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition to this.

  The spokesperson reiterated that Kang Mingkai and Michael were suspected of crimes endangering China's national security. The Chinese courts heard the cases in strict accordance with the law and fully protected the litigation rights of the two.

According to Article 188 of the Criminal Procedure Law of the People’s Republic of China and Article 222 of the Interpretation of the Supreme People’s Court on the Application of the Criminal Procedure Law of the People’s Republic of China, cases concerning state secrets shall not be disclosed. No one is allowed to attend the trial.

Canada’s Criminal Law clearly stipulates that Canadian judges have the right to decide not to hear relevant cases in public for the sake of maintaining national security.

Canada’s practice of "double standards" on legal issues has once again fully exposed its hypocrisy and unreasonableness.

  The spokesperson stated that China urges relevant countries to earnestly abide by the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and Chinese laws and regulations, and stop interfering in China's judicial sovereignty.

  The spokesperson emphasized again that what Canada did in the Meng Wanzhou incident was truly arbitrary detention.

China urges Canada to earnestly respect China's judicial sovereignty, stop interfering in China's lawful handling of cases in any way, and immediately release Ms. Meng Wanzhou so that she can return to China safely as soon as possible.

  Because the case involved state secrets, the Intermediate People’s Court of Dandong City, Liaoning Province held a private hearing on March 19 against Canadian defendant Michael Spaffer for spying overseas and illegally providing state secrets. The second intermediate level in Beijing On March 22, the People's Court heard the Canadian defendant Kang Mingkai's case of spying on state secrets and intelligence abroad in a private trial.

Michael Spaffer, Cumming Kay and their defense lawyers all appeared in court to participate in the litigation.

The Dandong Intermediate People's Court and the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court will each select a date to pronounce judgments in accordance with the law.

(Finish)