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Canadian Michael Kovrig’s steps to sanity in two years of China detention
- Kovrig’s wife says her husband does everything he can to maintain a positive mindset, including reading and singing
- Two years after arrest, along with Michael Spavor, the men are reported to be in good spirits and maintaining a sense of humour
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Michael Kovrig, one of the Canadians detained in China, walks 7,000 steps a day in his Beijing prison cell, according to his wife, speaking on the two-year anniversary of his arrest along with Michael Spavor.
Vina Nadjibulla, Kovrig’s strongest advocate, said the former diplomat “continues to be mentally and physically strong and has been doing everything he possibly can to maintain his positive mindset”. This includes reading and singing, in addition to his daily exercise, to keep sane, she said.
Kovrig was working as a senior adviser for the International Crisis Group when he was detained along with Canadian businessman Michael Spavor on December 10, 2018. Their arrests were decried by Western nations as retaliation for the detention on a US warrant of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver.
The pair were formally charged in June with espionage. China has not disclosed any evidence against them.
Nadjibulla said she continued to send Kovrig letters but the post had been slow during the pandemic, and she relied on officials’ consular visits – which were only restored in October after being halted in January – for information.
Kovrig, she said, had sent requests for books on philosophy, and “biographies of other people who’ve been through these kinds of experiences”.
“They have meant a great deal to him,” she said during a telephone interview. At one point last year, his jailers had seized his reading glasses.
During a virtual consular visit with Canadian officials in October, Kovrig’s boss Robert Malley told Canadian media that he had deadpanned he would be late filing a report.
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