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Canadian Kevin Garratt Indicted in China on Charges of Stealing State Secrets
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Canadian Kevin Garratt indicted in China on charges of stealing state secrets
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DANDONG – Canadian citizen Kevin Garratt has been accused of spying and stealing China’s state secrets and has been indicted by prosecutors in Dandong city in northeast China’s Liaoning Province, Chinese authorities said on Thursday.
The case will be tried at the Dandong Intermediate People’s Court.
The Chinese government has denied claims it has charged a Canadian man with spying as an act of retribution against the arrest and extradition proceedings against a Chinese man wanted by the U.S. for stealing fighter jet documents.
Kevin and Julia Dawn Garratt, shown here flanked by their son Peter and daughter Hannah, were detained in Aug. 2014 near the border with North Korea. They were accused of stealing Chinese military secrets. Julia Garratt was later released on bail.
He was arrested in Vancouver not long before Mr. Garratt was detained in China with his wife, Julia, nearly 18 months ago.
Kevin Garratt was indicted this week after investigators said they“discovered some new evidence” regarding his “accumulation of information in China,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Friday.
During the investigation, Chinese authorities also found evidence which implicates Garratt in accepting tasks from Canadian espionage agencies to gather intelligence in China.
The Christian couple ran a coffee shop and conducted humanitarian work in Dandong, a Chinese city on the border with North Korea. Julia Garratt has since been released on bail, but barred from leaving China or speaking with media.
The coffee shop in Dandong, China, that is run by a Canadian couple, Kevin and Julia Dawn Garratt
The couple’s children have expressed disbelief that they could be spies after living in China for much of the last three decades running kindergartens and community centres supported by Canadian church groups.
Canadian officials have said they believe the two have become pawns used by Beijing as a tit-for-tat against Ottawa.
The cases against Mr. Su and Mr. Garratt bear a number of parallels. Mr. Su was arrested on June 28, 2014; the Garratts were detained on Aug. 4 of that year.
Mr. Su is suspected of stealing and selling military secrets, Mr. Garratt of “accepting tasks” to gather intelligence on China for Canadian spy services.
Mr. Su is midway through an appeal of a judicial order committing him to extradition. U.S. Department of Justice documents revealed by The Globe and Mail on Jan. 22 say two “Chinese military officers” played key roles. Mr. Bin stands accused of giving hacking advice “to a foreign power.”
China subsequently denied that its military was involved, and Mr. Garratt was indicted six days after the Globe report on charges of spying and stealing state secrets, according to a brief announcement made by China’s state-run Xinhua news agency.
The charges against Mr. Garratt present a new test for the Justin Trudeau government, which has sought to dramatically improve Canada’s relations with China, including talks toward a free trade agreement.
They have also illustrated how the Chinese justice system can be used as a political tool.
Mr. Garratt is being held in a Chinese detention centre in Dandong, and has only been allowed to see lawyers once in nearly a year and a half. He has suffered health problems over the course of his long custody, and has not yet received a chance to defend himself in court.
The Chinese justice system mandates time standards for investigating suspects and bringing them to trial. But it is riddled with so many loopholes and exceptions – particularly in politically sensitive cases – “that it is possible to simultaneously handle the case in accordance with the law and hold somebody for an extended period of time in ways that violate all expectations for due process and fair trail under international law,” said Joshua Rosenzweig, an independent human rights researcher in Hong Kong.
“So they can really take as long as they want.”
James Zimmerman, a Beijing-based attorney for the Garratt family, said he could not comment on the indictment reported in Chinese media, saying he would wait to receive official documents from the court.
In Beijing, meanwhile, China’s foreign ministry also batted away concerns from the Garratts’ extended family that the couple were detained because of their Christian faith.
“He has been indicted because of spying and stealing China’s state secrets,” Ms. Hua said. “It has nothing to do with his religion.”
