The U.S. extradition case of huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou, daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, resumed court hearings on March 1, with defense lawyers expected to focus their defense on comments made by former President Trump related to the case. In the case of Meng Wanzhou, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau again stressed that he would not bypass the court to release her.
Meng’s defense lawyers said this week that Trump’s comments were so damaging to the extradition hearing that it “can no longer reasonably be considered fair” and should be stopped immediately. Trump’s repeated statements about interfering in the case have made the prosecution of the case politically motivated and “violate the integrity of the rule of law and the administration of justice,” the lawyers said.
The prosecutor in charge of the case said in an earlier filing with the BC Supreme Court that the arguments of Meng’s defense lawyers were “moot. The prosecutor pointed out that these arguments are based on the words of a former president and that there was no possibility that the act had interfered and had no past, present or future impact on the proceedings.
In an interview with U.S. media outlet NBC, Trudeau said that two Canadians, Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, were detained by the Chinese Communist Party on “fabricated national security charges,” saying that the Chinese Communist Party “is trying to put pressure on We are trying to put pressure on Meng to release her. But Canada is a country governed by the rule of law and we will not do that, and it is extremely difficult for Canada to go through this situation when we know that the Chinese Communist Party is arbitrarily detaining our citizens with no regard for fairness. He stressed that the authorities will not bypass the court to release Meng.
Trudeau just recently met with Biden for the first Time in a videotaped bilateral meeting. In response, Trudeau said he had a “very positive” conversation with Biden about the release of the two Canadians, saying the two sides had agreed to work together to resolve the issue and “hold the Chinese Communist Party accountable.
The extradition hearing for Meng is expected to last until May, and Ottawa, Beijing and Washington will be watching the case closely.
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