A Chinese court sentenced a Canadian man, Michael Spavor, to 11 years in prison on Wednesday in a espionage case linked to Beijing's pressure campaign against Canada over the arrest of an executive of tech giant Huawei.
The decision is seen as testing the strained relations between the two countries, which Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said was totally unacceptable.
He also claimed the decision was unfair because it showed a lack of transparency in the legal process, and discussions that did not meet the minimum standards required by international law.
The U.S. embassy in Beijing also condemned the sentence in a statement, saying that the proceedings against Spavor and another Canadian accused of espionage were an attempt to ‘use humans as bargaining tools’.
Spavor was first arrested in 2018, just days after Huawei's chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou was arrested, and later charged with espionage.
Meng Wanzhou was arrested in Vancouver on charges by the United States that he lied to Hong Kong's HSBC bank about a possible transaction with Iran that violated trade restrictions.
A Canadian court will hear the final argument in the next few weeks and decide whether to hand over Meng Wanzhou to face U.S. criminal charges.
