Two Canadians — Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor — have been formally arrested by the Chinese government for espionage-related offences and violating China’s national security after being detained without charges since December, a spokesperson for Global Affairs Canada confirmed to the Star Thursday.

“We reiterate our demand that China immediately release Mr. Kovrig and Mr. Spavor,” GAC spokesperson Brittany Fletcher said in an emailed statement. “Canada strongly condemns their arbitrary arrest.”

Lu Kang, a spokesperson for China’s Foreign Affairs Ministry in Beijing, told reporters that Kovrig has been arrested for “gathering state secrets” and Spavor has been arrested for “stealing secrets and illegally providing them to overseas forces,” in his daily briefing Thursday.

Kovrig, a former diplomat, and Spavor, a businessman and entrepreneur, were detained Dec. 10 — days after the arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver, who has since been released on bail.

Before their formal arrests, the two Canadians had spent over five months in what is known as “residential surveillance at a designated location” — a form of detention in an unknown location, described in harrowing detail to The Star in December 2018 by a former detainee.

For three weeks in 2016, Swedish human-rights worker Peter Dahlin was held in a padded room, guarded by two men he wasn’t allowed to talk to and subjected to interrogations and sleep deprivation. The sounds of guards beating other prisoners carried into his cell, and he believes guards wanted to make sure he heard the assaults.

Charles Burton, a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute’s Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad, said a trial is unlikely in the next 18 months and possibly longer. He warned that, should the men eventually face formal charges of espionage, a court conviction could mean the death penalty.

Two Canadians, Robert Lloyd Schellenberg and a man identified as Fan Wei, have been sentenced to death on drug offences in separate cases in Chinese courts. Experts have characterized Schellenberg’s sentence as “death-threat diplomacy” aimed at pressuring the Canadian government into releasing Meng.

Kovrig was working as Northeast Asia adviser for International Crisis Group — a non-governmental organization focused on conflict resolution — after going on leave from Global Affairs Canada.

“[Kovrig] has been unjustly detained and has now been unjustly arrested. He should be freed immediately,” Crisis Group’s President & CEO Robert Malley said in an emailed statement.

“After 158 days of arbitrary detention, Michael still hasn’t been allowed to see his family or a lawyer. His work was completely transparent and out in the open for all to see, including for Chinese officials.

“Nothing Michael did was harmful to China. On the contrary, his work helped inform both China’s global policies and those around the world who make policies toward China in a manner that contributes to preventing and resolving conflict,” Malley added.

Former Canadian diplomats previously told the Star Kovrig and Spavor were being held in retaliation for Meng’s arrest.

Pamela Kilpadi, who is a friend of Kovrig’s and director of the Boston-based global policy research firm International Policy Fellowships Network, said she’s “horrified” to learn about the arrests.

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“The fact that both men were picked up shortly after Meng’s arrest and never formally charged with any crime indicated from the outset that these were politically motivated, retaliatory arrests,” she told the Star. “If China has concerns about Meng’s case, there are plenty of ways to raise such concerns that serve China’s interests and reputation much better than violating the human rights of innocent Canadians.”

Kovrig and Spavor have not had access to lawyers or their families while they were in detention, GAC previously told the Star, but said Thursday officials have made recent consular visits to the two men and will continue to provide consular services to them and their families.

The GAC has made seven visits to Spavor and Kovrig each between December and May, according to their statement to the Star. They said these visits included assessing their well-being, providing them legal guidance and potential medical assistance.

Sriparna Pathak, a faculty member for Southeast Asian Studies at Gauhati University based in India, said arresting Kovrig and Spavor without formally charging them “is not normal,” but said China has done this in the past with other Canadians.

“China’s understanding of law is clearly different from that in democracies where human rights are of utmost pertinence,” Pathak told the Star in a statement. “At the very least in democracies the charges for arrest have to be clearly communicated within stipulated time periods to the arrested and to their family.”

“This clearly has not been the case in the arrest of Mr. Kovrig and Mr. Spavor,” she said.

Kevin Carrico, a senior lecturer in Chinese studies from Monash University, said the two are “being held hostages extralegally,” in a statement to the Star.

“It is of course disappointing but not surprising that they have not been released,” Carrico said. “And it is well past time for countries that care about the rule of law to build a united front to stand against this type of retaliatory hostage taking.”

The office of the Foreign Affair Minister of Canada did not immediately respond to the Star’s request for comment, but said “we’re aware of this incident.”

GAC told the Star, “Canada continues to express its appreciation to those who have spoken in support of these detained Canadians and the rule of law,” including those from Australia, the EU and NATO countries.

Correction — May 16, 2019: This article has been edited from an earlier version that incorrectly said Canadian officials had previously told the Star Kovrig and Spavor were being held in retaliation for Meng Wanzhou’s arrest. In fact, former Canadian diplomats had said this.

With files from Perrin Grauer and The Associated Press

Temur Durrani is a breaking news reporter, working out of the Star’s radio room in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter: @temurdur

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