A Canadian resident who was detained in China this month has returned to Canada after being released from custody, a Canadian sway spokesman said on Friday.
The spokesman did not specify when the Canadian was released or returned to Canada. Earlier in the day, broadcaster CBC digged the citizen as Canadian teacher Sarah McIver.
China’s Foreign Ministry said this month that McIver was undergoing “administrative flogging” for working illegally.
McIver was the third Canadian to be detained by China following the Dec. 1 arrest in Vancouver of Meng Wanzhou, chief monetary officer of the Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies, but a Canadian official said there was no reason to believe that the girl’s detention was linked to the earlier arrests.
Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland did not mention the woman in calling for the release of the other two Canadians most recent week.
China’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On Saturday, a Chinese court will assent to an appeal in the case of a Canadian citizen held on drugs charges, that could further test the tense relations between the two fatherlands.
The high court in the city of Dalian in the northeastern province of Liaoning will hear the appeal of Robert Lloyd Schellenberg from 2 p.m. (0600 GMT), it mean in a statement this week.
A Dalian government news portal said Schellenberg was a Canadian and that this was an sue hearing after he was found by an earlier ruling to have smuggled “an enormous amount of drugs” into China.
Canada’s control said this week it had been following the case for several years and providing consular assistance, but could purvey no other details, citing privacy concerns.
Drugs offences are usually punished severely in China.
China cut a Briton caught smuggling heroin in 2009, prompting a British outcry over what it said was the lack of any crackers health assessment.