The U.S. has filed a lawsuit against Huawei executives Meng Wanzhou An attorney for the Canadian Attorney General said that this shows that her behavior meets the classic definition of “business dishonesty” because her case has entered the final stage of the British Columbia Supreme Court.
Robert Frater stated that the allegations made and unsaid in Meng’s 2013 statement to HSBC represent the basic elements of fraud and that she should be extradited to face charges.
“The evidence for dishonesty in this situation we are talking about is very clear,” Flatt told the judge on Wednesday.
At the request of the United States, Meng was arrested at Vancouver Airport in December 2018, a move that undermined the relationship between Canada and China.
Her long-awaited extradition hearing is underway because Chinese courts are suing Canadians, and their sentence or detention is widely regarded as retaliation for her arrest.
Entrepreneur Michael Spavor is Convicted of espionage And was sentenced to 11 years in prison, while Canadian Robert Schellenberg was sentenced to 15 years in prison for drug smuggling Increased to death penalty on TuesdayMichael Cummingka was tried in March, but there is no word on when the verdict will be announced.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau condemned Spavor’s sentence after “arbitrary detention” and promised officials will work “round the clock” to ensure the release of him and Cumming Kai.
When asked whether Canada is negotiating on the possibility of returning Meng to China in exchange for the release of Spavor and Cumming Kai, Canadian Ambassador to China Dominique Patton said, “The two sides have engaged in intensive efforts and discussions. I don’t want to talk about it. Any details. But this will continue.”
The government lawyer told Meng Wanzhou that no one had received a “fairer hearing” in the extradition case
The allegations of fraud against Meng focused on a meeting she held with a senior banker from HSBC in a tea room in Hong Kong in 2013.
Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Huawei and the daughter of the founder of the Chinese telecommunications giant, denied allegations that she put HSBC at risk of violating US sanctions in a PowerPoint presentation that day.
But Frette accused Meng of issuing a statement to a senior banker eight years ago, “to a certain extent, it proves that Huawei has adopted a strict approach to sanctions compliance, and that Huawei requires any partners working in Iran to do the same. .”
He said she did not tell the banker that Huawei controls Skycom, a company HSBC follows.
“It’s about making an impression. The news was received exactly as expected,” Frater said.
Frette told the court that the role of Deputy Chief Justice Heather Holmes at the extradition hearing is not to determine whether Meng is guilty, but to determine whether the United States has provided sufficient evidence to support the lawsuit against her.
He said that an extradition hearing is not a trial, nor is it the job of an extradition judge to weigh conflicting inferences.
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In order to be extradited, the court must determine that the person’s conduct would be considered a crime if it happened in Canada.
“It is now clear that the core goal of the Canadian fraud law is to prevent dishonest behavior in commercial transactions. We say this case is a case of dishonest commercial transactions,” Frette said.
Even if Holmes stipulates that Meng should surrender to the United States, extradition is uncertain. According to the “Extradition Act”, the ruling may still face appeal, and the final decision rests with the Canadian Minister of Justice.
In the years after her arrest, Meng’s legal team initiated a series of disputes demanding her release on the grounds that she had been abused by the defiled case.
They claimed that there were more than 30 cases of misconduct or abuse of power in her case. From the political intervention of the then U.S. President Donald Trump, he stated that if it was beneficial to the US-China trade talks, he was willing to intervene to Canada. Deliberately improperly recorded. Border officials and police participated in her arrest.
Holmes has not yet made a ruling on the validity of the abuse allegations. If she did, Meng’s defense lawyer would advocate suspension of the proceedings to ensure her release.
Meng’s team is expected to respond to the government’s extradition arguments starting on Friday, and the hearing is scheduled to end on August 20, although it may take several months for the judge to prepare a decision.
© 2021 Canadian Press
