(MENAFN- The Peninsula) A Canadian couple accused of spying near China's sensitive border with North Korea have been kept separately in near isolation for more than 80 days and denied access to legal counsel, their son said yesterday.
Treatment of the couple, who are being held without charge at a remote facility in the border city of Dandong, has seriously strained China's ties with Canada ahead of a planned visit by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper for a multilateral summit next month in Beijing.
Kevin and Julia Garratt were allowed to meet briefly for breakfast last week - the first contact they had with each other during their detention.
"It's not their physical health I'm concerned about, it's more their mental health," their son, Simeon Garratt, said by phone. "You put anybody in a situation like that for 80 days, where you can't talk to anybody else and with no outside contact, and you don't know what could happen. It's not about food or water."
The couple had opened a cafe called Peter's Coffee House in Dandong in 2008. State media reported they are suspected of stealing national security secrets, but no formal charges have been filed.
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