Canada’s Justice Department said Thursday (Oct. 8, 2020) that a judge issued a ruling upholding a Justice Department decision not to provide lawyers for Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou with most of the documents that are legally privileged, including emails between Canadian and U.S. government departments.
In August, Meng’s lawyers asked the judge to order the Canadian Justice Department to provide confidential documents related to her December 2018 arrest in Vancouver to prove that authorities had violated Meng’s rights.
Canada’s Justice Department has already provided some of the requested documents to Meng’s lawyers through their attorneys, but has refused to provide additional documents on the basis of legal privilege.
Canada arrested Meng Wanzhou in response to a U.S. extradition request. She is accused of concealing Huawei’s business relationship with Iran from HSBC, which led the bank to violate U.S. sanctions against Iran.
Meng has argued her innocence and has been fighting in the Supreme Court of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, not to be extradited to the United States. Her next court appearance is scheduled for Oct. 26. The trial is expected to last until April of next year.
China has accused Canada of political action in arresting Meng and continuing to keep her out of Canada, and has been holding two Canadians in Chinese custody. Relations between the two countries remain tense as a result.
At an event on Wednesday, Canadian Foreign Minister Shi Jun described China’s continued detention of the two Canadians as hostage diplomacy and urged NATO allies to continue to monitor China’s increasingly arbitrary behavior closely.
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