The Saga Continues: Canadian Legal Extradition Battle Over Huawei Executive
Huawei is a major telecommunications company based in China. (NotebookCheck.)
In a case that has gone on for almost two years, defense lawyers argued in a Canadian court on October 26 that a Huawei executive’s arrest and detention by officials does not conform with lawful practices. The father of the Huawei executive, Meng Wanzhou, founded the telecommunications giant and today she acts as the Chief Financial Officer of the Chinese of the company.
In late 2018, Meng faced arrest in a Vancouver airport while en route to Argentina. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) had an arrest warrant for her requested by the U.S.
The U.S. substantiated the warrant based on a presentation Meng gave to an HSBC executive in 2013. Americans accuse her of defrauding HSBC by failing to disclose to the bank that Huawei controlled Skycom, a firm standing in violation of U.S. sanctions against Iran. By supposedly neglecting to mention this information, she put the bank at risk of breaching American sanctions. Meng denies all charges against her.
During her hearing last Monday, her lawyers used a multifaceted strategy to argue for her release in order to prevent her extradition to the U.S. They claimed that border officials took away her electronic devices, compelled her to reveal passwords and PIN codes, and handed everything over to the RCMP, which they allege violates Canada’s Extradition Act. The officers had also questioned her for three hours in the absence of a lawyer.
Defense lawyer Scott Fenton also attempted to attack the root of the problem by demonstrating the innocence of the 2013 presentation. Targeting the claim that Meng failed to inform HSBC about Huawei’s relationship with Skycom during her presentation, Fenton asserted that when viewing the entirety of the presentation, Meng mentions how Huawei had a “normal and controllable” relationship with the shell company.
Huawei has also come to her defense. It has sued U.S. government agencies in order to force the release of documents the company believes will reveal ulterior political motivations for Meng’s arrest.
Her arrest has soured diplomatic and economic relations between China and Canada. Almost immediately after her arrest, China detained two Canadians, ex-diplomat Michael Kovrig and consultant Michael Spavor, and accused them of spying. Although China stated that these arrests had nothing to do with Meng, China has also restricted tens of millions of dollars worth of Canadian exports. Meng’s case has also raised questions about the extradition process itself and the lengths to which countries should go in order to satisfy U.S. requests.
Meng presently remains under partial house-arrest in Vancouver after her release on $10 million bail. At her multimillion dollar home, Meng published an open letter comforting her supporters, in which she writes that her detention has allowed her time to “read a book” and “complete an oil painting.”