Canadian detained by China says he experienced psychological torture
World
Canadian detained by China says he experienced psychological torture
OTTAWA (Reuters) - A Canadian man detained by China for more than 1,000 days said he was put into 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 an interview released on Monday, also said he had missed the birth of his daughter and only 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 U.S. 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 U.N. 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, a former diplomat who had been working as an adviser with a think-tank when 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.
