By : Mohamed El Kholy - Nahla Ahmed
Lawyers making a final push to convince a Canadian court not to recommend the extradition of Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou have called into question the reliability of information provided by the United States in its extradition request.
Meng has returned to a Canadian courtroom for the final weeks of her U.S. extradition hearings, as the legal proceedings running more than two years draw to a close. Meng was arrested in December 2018 at Vancouver International Airport on a warrant from the U.S., charging her with misleading HSBC about Huawei's business dealings in Iran, potentially causing the bank to violate American economic sanctions.
The defense claims the record is "unreliable" because documents Meng has obtained from HSBC show senior executives at the bank were aware of the risk Huawei represented.
The hearings, expected to last until Aug. 20, will initially focus on the third part of her lawyers' arguments, specifically that U.S. prosecutors materially misrepresented the case against her in their extradition request to Canada. The defense has called the U.S. record of the case "manifestly unreliable". A lawyer for Meng further says the U.S. has abused the "good faith" baked into the extradition process by misleading Canada and its judicial system about the strength of criminal allegations against the Huawei executive.
Defense lawyer Mona Duckett kicked off the final portion of the high-profile B.C. Supreme Court case by claiming U.S. prosecutors have placed a "false narrative" before the judge overseeing the proceedings.
Huawei said in a statement on Wednesday it "remains confident" in Meng's innocence, and added the company will continue to support her defense. Meng, who has also said she is innocent, has been fighting her extradition from under house arrest in Vancouver.
