this trial well it's been a very long drawn out legal process for both michael cover and michael speight will we've had very little information from the chinese government the ratan they've said that this is because these 2 cases are related to issues of national security but we know the birth of them were arrested in december 2818 months later they were formally charged with espionage and providing intelligence to outside sources now canada as we heard earlier has been highly critical of the way these cases have been handled in addition to a lack of transparency they say that they've been given very little access to the outside world since they've both been detained now for more than 800 days and they've also raised questions about the amount of the amount of access they've had to chinese lawyers prior to the trials being heard on friday and today on monday now this case of course has also attracted a lot of international attention the business community for one are watching closely both men were known very well here among the ex-pat community they both lived in china for some years and

spain 70 autonomous catalonia region colors push to go on to other form of cotton and officials fled speight after the referendum and went home to him saints in the european parliament they could now face extradition to spain which ruled the referendum illegal and charge them with sedition. well carla's pushed him out joins us now from brussels that welcome to the w m are you upset that so many members of the parliament voted against your. while those exactly many members is this i think is the lowest of the poor 3rd to a petition of the wave of immunity there is close to 300 any peace who refuse to vote in favor to leave our immunity we'll last immunity yes but finally the results are sending a clear message as a political question and there is some debate in the european parliament that's what the public is there for just to be clear on the figures 400 voted to strip you of immunity 248 voted against that number 45 abstentions just so we're clear on the numbers why do you think of a database to you. normally when. you see the figures concerning the weight of immunity normally there's a kin

28th and wasn't charged formally with espionage until about 18 months later so both him and michael speight will have been detained now for more than 800 days of very little access to the outside world and because of covered 1000 even their monthly consular visits by kennedy d'un officials have been paul's now canada of course has been highly critical of the way their cases have been handled as we've just heard they call these cases political victory you say there has been nor transparency which the chinese government has justified by saying that these are national security cases canadian officials have also raised concerns about their access to chinese lawyers here and that's especially concerning because here in china the communist party controls the courts and 99 percent of all people charged in criminal cases are found guilty now this case of course has gone and a lot of international attention business people who come to china regularly or who live here in china have been very shocked by these cases both michael spadeful and michael covel well known and many companies will be watching

china former diplomat michael kaur vacant businessman michael spade or were arrested 2 years ago speight or as trial is due to begin shortly the pair are accused of spying and a move widely seen as a retaliatory over canada as the tension of main one zoo an executive from chinese telecom giant weiwei the us once mang extradited to face fraud charges related to our ways dealings with iran several european countries including germany and france are resuming astra zeneca vaccinations after the continent's top medical regulators said the doses are safe and effective european medicines agency believes the benefits of receiving the job far outweigh the potential risks of blood clots from berlin dominic kane reports for much of this week this vaccine has been the focus of attention by many as a main weapon against coded but feared by others from what they thought might be a dangerous side effect the use of medical regulator has given its verdict the committee has come to a clear scientific conclusion this is a safe and effective vaccine its benefits in protecting people from 19 with the associa

executives china's held separate proceedings for another canadian facing similar charges michael speight trial ended on friday without a verdict despite. the international agreement that china has signed under the vienna convention that would allow. consular officers access to hearings for their citizens we are being denied that access we've requested access to michael writes hearing repeatedly repeatedly but that access tonight. as you know. michael has been detained for more than 2 years now. he's been arbitrarily detained and now we see that the process itself is not transparent let's go live now to beijing i'll just have to train the u.s. that ok so this trial is going on behind closed doors what do we know about his. bulwer unfortunately not expecting a verdict for this trial today as was the case of michael spate of on friday and this has been a long drawn out legal process for both men they were detained in december 28th scene and they had to wait 18 months to be formally charged with espionage and to date both of them had been detained for more than $800.00 days with very limited

teen and wasn't charged formally with espionage until about 18 months later so both him and michael speight will have been detained now for more than 800 days and very little access to the outside world and because of carbon 1000 even the monthly visits by candidate officials have been poor with floodwaters rising across parts of the australian state of new south wales some natural disasters been declared in some regions of the worst flooding in decades. the leading opposition candidates in the democratic republic of congo has died briefs parfait swiss being transferred to france for treatment for covert 19 meanwhile votes are still being counted president than a sussudio and gates who is widely expected to win extending his 36 years in power japan has lifted a state of emergency in tokyo as pressure mounts to bring the coronavirus pandemic under control the head of july's olympic games on the measures imposed in january bars and restaurants have been closing at 8 at night while many other businesses have switched to remote booking corona virus infections surging across much of latin americ

december 28th seen soon after canada detained along with executive men one job another canadian michael speight or has been held in china on similar charges his trial ended 3 days ago without a verdict well katrina you joins us live now from beijing katrina so what more do we know at this stage about covering this trial and the significance of these 2 cases. well it's been a long drawn out legal process and we're not sure whether we're going to hear a verdict from michael cover its trial today it took 18 months after both men were arrested in december 2800 for them to even be charged with espionage and they've been detained $800.00 days of very little access to the outside world they were given access to monthly meetings with canadian officials but this was paused because of corvids and canada generally has been highly critical of how this case has been handled they say there's a lack of transparency that it's political it's arbitrary and also they're very much questioning the access that these 2 men have been given to chinese lawyers and that's important because here in china the communist par