China
2021.08.19 07:10 GMT+8

Huawei CFO's extradition hearing closes in Canada

Updated 2021.08.19 13:40 GMT+8
CGTN

Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou. /CFP

Huawei Technologies's Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou's extradition hearing in Canada closed on Wednesday. The judge will set a date to announce the decision in October.

The court case presented by the prosecution revealed contradictory statements, according to media reports on the ground.

Meng's lawyers said there were four areas of abuse in the proceedings, which have lasted for more than two years – political motivation, unlawful detention, material omissions and misstatements, and violations of customary international law.

"Ms. Meng's Charter rights were violated by the abuse of the legal process. The only way to redress the prejudice caused by the abuse is to stay the extradition," Huawei said in a Wednesday statement viewed by CGTN.

"From the start, Huawei has been confident in Ms. Meng's innocence and has trusted the Canadian judicial system. Accordingly, Huawei has been supporting Ms. Meng's pursuit of justice and freedom. We continue to do so today," the statement added.

The U.S. is accusing Meng of fraud and wants her to face trial in New York. Both Meng and Huawei have repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

Meng was accused of misleading HSBC in a 2013 PowerPoint presentation about Huawei's business links in Iran through a company called Skycom, thus putting the bank at risk of violating U.S. sanctions against Iran.

Read more:

The untold story in the Meng Wanzhou case

Meng's lawyers dispute the allegations. 

A Canadian judge last month denied their application to add documents they received from HSBC as evidence to her case.

Meng was arrested by Canadian police on December 1, 2018, during a stopover at Vancouver International Airport.

On December 11, 2018, she was released on bail by a British Columbian court. Since then, she has been wearing a GPS ankle bracelet and is subject to 24-hour supervision by a private security firm at her Vancouver home.

Her arrest has caused tension between China and Canada, with China slamming the arrest as a political case.

"There are enough facts to show that the Meng Wanzhou incident is a political event through and through. The U.S.'s fraud accusations against Ms. Meng Wanzhou are nothing but fabrication," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said earlier this week.

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