VANCOUVER/NEW YORK: Huawei’s chief financial officer intends to seek a stay of extradition proceedings in part based on statements by President Donald Trump about the case, which her lawyers say disqualifies the United States from pursuing the matter in Canada.
CFO Meng Wanzhou, 47, the daughter of Huawei Technologies Co Ltd’s billionaire founder, Ren Zhengfei, was arrested at Vancouver’s airport in December on a US warrant and is fighting extradition on charges that she conspired to defraud global banks about Huawei’s relationship with a company operating in Iran.
After the arrest, Trump said he would intervene in the US case against Meng if it would help close a trade deal with China.
Meng’s defence lawyers said in a document presented to the British Columbia Supreme Court on Wednesday that they intend to apply for the stay of the extradition proceedings based on abuses that go beyond Trump’s comments.
The lawyers also claim Meng was unlawfully detained, searched and interrogated at the airport, with her arrest delayed under the guise of a routine immigration check.
In addition, Meng’s counsel argued there is no evidence she misrepresented to a bank Huawei’s relationship with a company operating in Iran called Skycom, thereby putting the bank at risk of violating US sanctions law, or that the bank relied on her statements to its detriment.
The lawyers claim the bank understood the relationship between Huawei and Skycom. — Reuters
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