Meng Wanzhou, the daughter of the founder of Huawei, wanted to fight his extradition to the United States.
A Canadian judge rejected a request from Huawei’s chief financial officer, who wanted testimonies from employees of the Chinese telecoms giant to be admitted as evidence to fight her extradition to the United States.
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Lawyers for Meng Wanzhou, 49, daughter of the founder of Huawei, believe that these affidavits could show that the HSBC bank knew the links between Huawei and its subsidiary Skycom which operated in Iran, contrary to what the American justice affirms . This evidence would help to demonstrate that the prosecution case against Meng Wanzhou is “ obviously unreliable “, According to the lawyers.
The United States accuses Meng Wanzhou of lying to HSBC, during a meeting in 2013, about the links between Huawei and its subsidiary, at the risk of pushing the bank to violate American sanctions against this country without knowing it. They want to try her for bank fraud.
In a decision released Friday evening, Justice Heather Holmes of the Supreme Court of British Columbia ruled that the testimony requested by the defense of Meng Wanzhou “ fell within the scope of a trial, not an extradition hearing “. These depositions would only give a new version of the facts opposing that of the American justice, “ which would be beyond the true scope of an extradition hearing “, according to her.
Last weekend, Huawei confirmed that Meng Wanzhou had taken legal action against HSBC in Hong Kong to obtain documents it plans to use to fight her extradition. Last February, she lost a similar lawsuit in London.
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The extradition hearings of Meng Wanzhou, who has lived under house arrest in Vancouver since his arrest in late 2018 at the request of the United States, have entered their final phase. They are due to resume on Monday and end in mid-May in Vancouver.
Relations between Ottawa and Beijing are going through an unprecedented crisis since the arrest in China of former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig and his compatriot Michael Spavor, accused of espionage, a few days after that of Meng Wanzhou on December 1, 2018 during stopover at Vancouver airport.
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