BEIJING (Dispatches) - A court in China has found Canadian businessman Michael Spavor guilty of spying, sentencing him to 11 years in prison, in a decision likely to further undermine already poor relations between China and Canada.
Spavor, who for years ran a travel and cultural exchange business between China and North Korea, “was convicted of espionage and illegally providing state secrets”, Dandong city’s Intermediate People’s Court said in a statement on Wednesday.
“He was sentenced to 11 years in prison.”
The court said Spavor, whose closed-door trial in March lasted little more than two hours, would also be deported but did not say when, and confiscated some of his personal property.