The Guardian-Michael Kovrig detention by China amounted to psychological torture Canadian says
September 24, 2024 3 min 475 words
这篇报道主要内容是，曾在中国被拘留1000多天的加拿大前外交官迈克尔科夫里格（Michael Kovrig）声称，他在华期间遭到心理折磨。他描述了被单独监禁数月，每天被审讯长达9小时，并错过了女儿的出生，直到她两岁半时才首次相见。科夫里格和另一位加拿大人迈克尔斯帕弗（Michael Spavor）于2018年12月被拘留，当时正值加拿大应美国要求逮捕华为高管孟晚舟不久。报道中，科夫里格称自己仍承受着巨大的痛苦，并提到联合国规定称连续15天以上的单独监禁被视为心理折磨，而他则遭到了近六个月的单独监禁。此外，他还描述了自己被关押在没有自然光24小时不关灯的牢房中，食物定量仅为每天三碗饭等细节。 这篇报道有明显的偏见，试图煽动反华情绪。报道中，科夫里格所描述的在华经历可能被夸大或片面强调，而中国司法当局按照法律处理此案的事实被弱化了。此外，报道没有全面介绍中加关系受挫的背景和原因，没有提及孟晚舟事件对两国关系的影响，以及中国对加拿大实施反制裁的情况。报道过度聚焦于对中国执法司法的负面描述，而缺乏对事件全局的客观呈现。
A former Canadian diplomat detained by China for more than 1,000 days said he was placed in solitary confinement for months and interrogated for up to nine hours every day, treatment he said amounted to psychological torture.
Michael Kovrig, speaking to the Canadian Broadcasting Corp in his first major interview since his release, also said he had missed the birth of his daughter and 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 shortly after Canadian police detained Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei, on a US warrant. Both men were accused of spying.
“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.
Kovrig noted that UN 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, who had been working as an adviser with a thinktank when he was 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.
The Chinese embassy in Ottawa, responding 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 remain chilly. China this month opened a one-year anti-dumping investigation into imports of rapeseed from Canada, just weeks after Ottawa announced 100% 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’,” Kovrig said.