• Meng Wanzhou accused of misleading HSBC Holdings over Iran dealings
• Tech giant chief claims ‘abuses of process’ during her Canada arrest
Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou returned to a Canadian courtroom on Wednesday for the final weeks of her US extradition hearings, as the legal proceedings that have run for more than two years draw to a close.
Meng, 49, was arrested in December 2018 at Vancouver International Airport on a warrant from the United States, charging her with misleading HSBC Holdings PLC about Huawei’s business dealings in Iran, potentially causing the bank to violate American economic sanctions.
Meng, who denies the charges, has been fighting her extradition case from under house arrest in Vancouver.
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The upcoming hearings, expected to last until August 20, will initially focus on the third part of her lawyers’ arguments, specifically that US prosecutors materially misrepresented the case against her in their extradition request to Canada.
The defence has called the US record of the case “manifestly unreliable”, which Canadian prosecutors dispute.
Hearings will then move to the remedy stage, which will address Meng’s allegations that abuses of process occurred during her arrest. After that, a committal hearing, to determine whether there is sufficient evidence against Meng for her to stand trial, will take place.
A decision is widely expected in the autumn.
In the days following Meng’s arrest, which immediately caused a chill in relations between Ottawa and Beijing, China detained two Canadians – Michael Spavor, a businessman, and Michael Kovrig, a former diplomat.
Ottawa has repeatedly pressed Washington for help in pressuring China to release the men.
- Reuters
Read more:
HSBC reaches deal with Huawei’s Meng over dispute
Meng defence team counter claims HSBC were misled by Huawei chief
