James Zimmerman was quoted in the Wired article, "How the US Halted China’s Cybertheft—Using a Chinese Spy," regarding the case against his clients, Kevin and Julia Garratt.

The “evidence” against Kevin, though, appeared mainly to be that he had a history of taking fairly unremarkable photographs in public places—going to Tiananmen Square, say, and filming the soldiers marching around and raising the flag, James says. “Getting caught up with China’s politically driven criminal justice system can be a bleak, depressing experience,” James says. “Due process in China is a different animal than in most Western judicial systems. While the investigators are not allowed to torture the suspects, mistreatment is a matter of definition.” He spent months shuttling back and forth between meetings with the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Commerce, and Canadian embassy officials. “My goal was to plead to them that this case was not good for China given the dearth of evidence and the potential for a public backlash.” Later, Kevin Garratt would precisely recall the outline of the cell he shared with as many as 14 prisoners in China: “About 12 paces by five and a half.”

Behind the scenes, though, the Chinese acknowledged that the charges were absurd—and that there was an easy path for the Garratts’ release, says James.  As James told The New York Times, “The Chinese made it clear that the Garratt case was designed to pressure Canada to block Su Bin’s extradition to the US.”