Wednesday marked four months of detention for Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, who are being held in a government system that gives Chinese authorities up to six months to conduct interrogations outside the formal legal system
Chinese authorities seized the two men on Dec. 10, days after the arrest in Vancouver of Meng Wanzhou, a top executive of Chinese telecom giant Huawei Technologies Company Ltd. Ever since, the men have been subjected to interrogations of six to eight hours a day, according to a Canadian official, who was granted anonymity because of the political sensitivity of the case.China has accused Mr. Kovrig and Mr. Spavor of espionage-related offences, although neither man has been formally charged.
Barring detainees from seeing daylight is a form of stimulatory deprivation that can create disorientation, he said. “It can also affect the ability to get proper sleep, as the circadian rhythm is altered, a more indirect way of sleep deprivation which, again, weakens you.” The treatment of Mr. Kovrig and Mr. Spavor stands in contrast to that of two other Canadians, Kevin and Julia Garratt, who were similarly detained in China in 2014. The Garratts were also regularly interrogated, but Chinese authorities gave them 15 minutes a day to walk outside., they describe those brief moments as important interludes from the pressures of interrogation. Once, Ms. Garratt watched lanterns floating into the sky.
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