Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei, will return to a Canadian court in early August for the final three weeks of arguments to prevent the Canadian government from extraditing her to the United States.
Meng’s lawyer told the judge in British Columbia’s Supreme Court on Wednesday (May 12, 2021) that the defense will apply to present new evidence to the court on June 7 and appear with her client at the court’s final round of hearings, scheduled to begin on Aug. 3.
The U.S. alleges that Meng had misrepresented Huawei’s ties to Iran to HSBC in Hong Kong, causing the bank to violate a U.S. sanctions order against Iran.In December 2018, the Canadian government arrested Meng at the request of the U.S. when she was en route to Vancouver.
Meng argued that she did not mislead HSBC about Huawei’s Iranian business and sought access to HSBC’s internal documents to disprove the U.S. extradition request.
Last month, HSBC and Meng’s lawyers said the two sides reached an agreement around HSBC’s disclosure of the dispute.
After Canada arrested Meng in response to a U.S. extradition request, Chinese authorities then arrested Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor. Beijing’s move was widely seen as retaliatory action for Meng’s arrest, but Beijing rejected the accusation.
Chinese authorities have accused the two Canadians of gathering intelligence and endangering China’s national security and held a secret trial against them in March, but no verdict has been handed down.
Biden has met with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau by video several times since taking office in January, each time discussing and condemning China’s detention of the two Canadians and pledging to work to get them back to freedom.
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