A Canadian citizen, who has been held in a Chinese prison since 2014, has been charged with stealing state secrets, according to a report.
According to Xinhua News Agency, Kevin Garratt has been indicted in Dandong City and will be tried at the Dandong Intermediate People’s Court.
The news agency reported that Chinese authorities found evidence that suggests Garratt accepted “tasks from Canadian espionage agencies to gather intelligence in China.”
Garratt and his wife Julia were detained in Aug. 2014 in Dandong, a city that borders North Korea.
Julia Garratt was released in Feb. 2015.
A request for comment from Global Affairs Canada was not immediately returned.
The Garratts, originally from Vancouver, had lived in China for more than 30 years. The couple opened a coffee shop in 2008.
The Canadian Press reported that the Garratts were out for dinner with friends when they were detained just days after the Canadian government blamed Chinese hackers for infiltrating computers at the National Research Council of Canada, a claim Beijing vehemently denied.
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