Breaking | Canadian activist Kevin Garratt charged with spying and stealing China’s state secrets
Garratt is the latest foreign citizen working in an international NGO to be targeted by Beijing after Swedish citizen Peter Dahlin was detained and deported for "endangering China’s national security"
A Canadian Christian activist who helped provide humanitarian aid to North Koreans has been indicted of spying and stealing China’s state secrets.
Kevin Garratt had been indicted by prosecutors in Dandong city, China’s main border town with North Korea in northeast Liaoning province, the state-run news agency Xinhua reported.
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Chinese authorities had found evidence of Garratt accepting tasks from Canadian espionage agencies to gather intelligence in China, the news agency said, without elaborating.
Garratt is the latest foreign citizen working for an international NGO to be targeted by Beijing. Swedish citizen Peter Dahlin was detained in China three weeks ago and deported after making a confession on state-run CCTV.
Dahlin, 35, co-founded the Chinese Urgent Action Working Group, which provided legal assistance.
Xinhua said Dahlin’s detention was part of a police operation to “smash” an “illegal organisation that sponsored activities jeopardising China’s national security”. Dahlin’s organisation had gathered and fabricated information about China, it said.
