VANCOUVER — A B.C. Supreme Court judge has reserved her decision on whether to allow Meng Wanzhou’s lawyers to advance an argument that United States officials misled Canada when they described allegations against the Huawei executive.
Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes also reserved her decision on whether to admit additional evidence that would support that claim in Meng’s fight against extradition to the U.S.
Meng is wanted in the United States on fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud charges that both she and Huawei deny.
She is accused of misrepresenting Huawei’s relationship with Skycom in a PowerPoint presentation to HSBC, putting the bank at risk of violating U.S. sanctions against Iran.
Her lawyers want to argue at a hearing scheduled for next year that Meng was the victim of an abuse of process because the summary of her case omitted information from the PowerPoint that they say gave HSBC enough information to navigate U.S. trade laws.
Lawyers for Canada’s attorney general say the defence is trying to turn the extradition hearing into a trial and their line of argument and the evidence they seek would be better suited for a U.S. fraud trial.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 30, 2020.
The Canadian Press
