BEIJING:  The trial for Michael Kovrig, the Canadian detained more than two years ago in China on espionage charges, began on Monday, with relations between Ottawa and Beijing in freefall.

Kovrig's trial took place behind closed doors in Beijing, dpa news agency reported. Diplomats from more than two dozen countries, including Germany, attempted in vain to gain access to the proceeding.

Jim Nickel, the Charges d'Affaires at the Canadian Embassy in Beijing, said Kovrig had been "arbitraily detained". "And now we see that the court process itself is not transparent. We are very troubled by this," Nickel added.

The hearing comes days after the closed-door trial of another Canadian man, with both detained in apparent retaliation for Canada's arrest on a US extradition warrant of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou.

Kovrig and Spavor, whose trial opened on March 19, were arrested in December 2018 following the detention of Meng Wanzhou, the Chief Financial Officer of the Chinese telecom giant Huawei, in Canada at the instigation of US authorities.

"The reason that has been given to us while we are being denied access to our citizen facing trial is that this is a so-called national security case and therefore it is a closed case, a closed courtroom." At the time of his arrest, Kovrig was working as an expert for the International Crisis Group think-tank in China, while Spavor ran a cultural exchange company with North Korea in Beijing.

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