China on Tuesday condemned “lies and smears” and defended its three-year detention of former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig after he alleged psychological torture during his imprisonment in the country.
Kovrig, speaking to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in an interview released on Monday, also said he had missed the birth of his daughter and only met her for the first time when she was two-and-a half years old.
Kovrig and fellow Canadian Michael Spavor were taken into custody in December 2018 soon after Canadian police detained Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei Technologies, on a US warrant. Both men were accused of spying.
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“I still carry a lot of pain around with me and that can be heavy at times,” Kovrig said in his first substantial 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 guidelines say prisoners should not be put into solitary confinement for more than 15 days in a row.
“More than that is considered psychological torture. I was there for nearly six months,” said Kovrig, a former diplomat who had been working as an adviser with a think-tank when arrested.
Kovrig said there was no daylight in the solitary cell, where the fluorescent lights were kept on 24 hours a day. At one point, his food ration was cut to three bowls of rice a day.
“It was psychologically absolutely, the most gruelling, painful thing I’ve ever been through,” he said.
“It’s a combination of solitary confinement, total isolation, and relentless interrogation for six to nine hours every day,” he said. “They are trying to bully and torment and terrorise and coerce you … into accepting their false version of reality.”
Kovrig and Spavor were released on the same day the US Justice Department dropped its extradition request for Meng and she returned to China.
Asked about Kovrig’s claims at a regular briefing, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian insisted “China is a country under the rule of law”.
“Lies and smears cannot change the fact that the person you mentioned broke the law and committed crimes,” he said.
“We advise the relevant parties to respect the facts and reflect on their mistakes,” he added.
The Chinese embassy in Ottawa, responding earlier to Kovrig’s interview, said he and Spavor had been suspected of engaging in activities endangering China’s national security.
Chinese judicial authorities handled the cases in strict accordance with the law, it said in a statement.
Bilateral ties are chilly. China this month opened a one-year anti-dumping investigation into imports of rapeseed from Canada, just weeks after Ottawa announced 100 per cent tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles.
Kovrig’s partner was six months pregnant at the time of his arrest. She played their daughter recordings of his voice and showed pictures of her father so she would recognise him when they finally met.
“I’ll never forget that sense of wonder, of everything being new and wonderful again and pushing my daughter on a swing that had her saying to her mother ‘Mummy, I’m so happy’,” he said.
Reuters and Agence France-Presse
This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP’s Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2024 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
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