The Chinese government last Thursday announced that it has formally detained a Canadian man accused of stealing state secrets after months under house arrest, while releasing his wife, also a Canadian, on bail.

During a press briefing on Feb. 5, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Hong Lei said that Kevin Garratt was now being held in a criminal detention center by the Dandong division of the Ministry of State Security “for suspected theft of and prying into state secrets.” His wife, Julia Garratt, has been released on the condition that she not leave China for one year, according to a statement from the family's lawyer, Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton Beijing partner James Zimmerman.

The Garratts, natives of Vancouver, had been under residential surveillance by local authorities in Dandong, Liaoning province, in northern China since last August, for allegedly stealing secret information regarding Chinese military targets and defense research projects. The couple, who had lived in China since 1984, operated a coffee shop in Dandong near the border with North Korea and worked with a Christian charity group that provided humanitarian aid to North Koreans.