By Elishya Perera
VANCOUVER, BC (CU)_A Canadian judge has rejected a request to admit a testimony from employees of Huawei as evidence in CFO Meng Wanzhou’s extradition case.
Meng has been accused of putting HSBC at risk of violating US sanction laws by misleading it regarding Huawei’s business dealings with Iran, as the bank continued to clear US dollar transactions for the telecom giant. However, Meng has denied any wrongdoing, and is therefore fighting her extradition case while under house arrest in Vancouver.
Her lawyers believe that the affidavits could show HSBC was aware of Huawei’s dealings with Iran, thereby demonstrating that the prosecution case was “manifestly unreliable”.
However, Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes of the Supreme Court of British Columbia ruled on Friday (12 March) that the testimony requested by Meng’s lawyers relate to issues “within the domain of a trial, [but] not the extradition hearing”.
Accordingly, Holmes pointed out that it is not for her to rule on issues of credibility in an extradition hearing.
“The proposed evidence could do no more than offer an alternative narrative from that set out” by the United States in its case against Meng, Holmes wrote. “These would take the extradition hearing beyond its proper scope.”
Last month, Meng lost a legal bid in London to gain access to HSBC documentation, as her lawyers sought evidence about what the bank did and did not know about Huawei’s dealings with Iran. However, last week the telecom giant confirmed that she is now taking the bank to court in Hong Kong to access similar records which she says will help her battle extradition.
Meanwhile, Meng’s battle in Vancouver has entered its final phase, as hearings are expected to end in mid-May, barring appeals.
Her extradition case has severely damaged relations between China and Canada. Just days after her arrest in Vancouver in December 2018, Beijing detained two Canadians in China, a move which is widely perceived in the West as retaliation for the arrest of the Huawei CFO.
Nevertheless, last week, The Global Times, a Communist Party newspaper, reported that Beijing will soon begin trials for the two Canadians who have been charged with “crimes undermining China’s national security”.
