Tag: Michael Kovrig

China frees Canadians after Huawei boss released » BBC News

A diplomatic row between China and the West appears to be ending, after the release of two Canadians held in China and a Chinese tech executive in Canada. Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, arrested on a US warrant in 2018, left Canada on Friday in a deal with US prosecutors. Hours later it was announced that Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, accused of espionage by China in the same year, were flying home to Canada. Beijing denies detaining the Canadians in retaliation for Ms Meng’s arrest. But critics have accused China of using them as political bargaining chips. The two men had maintained their innocence throughout.

China, Canada free detainees after Huawei exec deal with US » DW News

Two Canadians and a top Chinese executive are on their way home after a deal with US authorities put an end to a three year diplomatic spat. Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of China’s Huawei telecoms giant, was arrested in Canada in 2018 on US charges of violating sanctions. Weeks later Beijing detained two Canadian citizens in China in what was seen as an act of retaliation. The detentions had strained relations between the world’s two superpowers. Now a federal judge in New York has accepted a deal between US-prosecutors and Meng. Under the deal, Meng admitted to some wrongdoing. Prosecutors agreed in return to drop charges against her next year, provided she complies with certain rules. The case has also been a source of friction between China and Canada, where Meng has been detained and fighting US-extradition since her 2018 arrest. The deal included an acknowledgment by Meng that she mislead a bank about the company’s operations in Iran that were in violation of US-sanctions. The agreement paves the way for her to be released from home-detention in Canada and return to China. But it doesn’t drop the US-case against Huawei itself, which includes charges related to intellectual-property theft.

Continue reading