China on Tuesday condemned “lies and slander” and defended the three-year detention of former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig after he alleged he was psychologically tortured while held in the country.
Kovrig also said in an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation on Monday that he missed his daughter’s birth and didn’t meet her for the first time until she was two and a half years old.
Kovrig and fellow Canadian Michael Spavor were arrested in December 2018, shortly after Canadian police detained them. Meng Wanzhouthe chief financial officer of the Chinese telecommunications equipment giant Huawei Technologieson an American warrant. Both men were accused of espionage.
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“I still carry a lot of pain with me and it can be hard at times,” Kovrig said in his first substantive comments since he and Spavor were released in September 2021.
Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig in 2023. File photo: Reuters alt=Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig in 2023. File photo: Reuters>
Kovrig noted that United Nations According to the guidelines, prisoners cannot be placed in solitary confinement for more than 15 days at a time.
“More than that is considered psychological torture. I was there for almost six months,” said Kovrig, a former diplomat who was working as an adviser for a think tank when he was arrested.
Kovrig said there was no daylight in the solitary confinement cell, where fluorescent lights were left on 24 hours a day. At one point, his food rations were reduced to three bowls of rice a day.
“It was absolutely the most psychologically draining and painful thing I’ve ever experienced,” he said.
“It’s a combination of solitary confinement, total isolation and relentless interrogation for six to nine hours a day,” he said. “They try to bully you, torment you, terrorize you and coerce you … into accepting their false version of reality.”
Kovrig and Spavor were released on the same day the U.S. Justice Department withdrew its extradition request for Meng and she returned to China.
When asked about Kovrig’s claims during a regular briefing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian stressed that “China is a country under the rule of law.”
“Lies and slander cannot change the fact that the person you named broke the law and committed crimes,” he said.
“We advise the parties involved to respect the facts and reflect on their mistakes,” he added.
The Chinese embassy in Ottawa earlier responded to Kovrig’s interview by saying he and Spavor were suspected of being involved in activities that endangered China’s national security.
Chinese judicial authorities handled the cases strictly according to the law, the statement said.
Bilateral relations are chilly. China this month launched a year-long anti-dumping investigation into imports of rapeseed from Canadajust weeks after Ottawa announced 100 percent import duties on electric vehicles produced in China.
Kovrig’s partner was six months pregnant when he was arrested. She played recordings of his voice to their daughter and showed photos of her father so she would recognize him when they finally met.
“I will never forget that feeling of wonder, that everything was new and beautiful again and I was pushing my daughter on a swing and she said to her mother, ‘Mommy, I’m so happy,’” he said.
Reuters and Agence France-Presse
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