Huawei CFO gets 14-week adjournment in extradition hearing

By Barry Ellsworth

TRENTON, Canada (AA) – A Canadian judge granted a 14-week adjournment Wednesday in the extradition hearing of Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou to give her defence time to review new documents.

The adjournment was requested after Meng’s legal team reached an agreement with the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Ltd. (HSBC) to access the documents, which may influence the hearing. The team hopes the evidence will result in an end to proceedings.

“I wish now to make plain that the remainder of the proceedings…will be rescheduled to being on or around Aug. 3, 2021,” Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes said in a British Columbia courtroom as reported by CTV News.

The judge also said after delivering her decision to adjourn that further delays would not be tolerated.

The HSBC documents total thousands of pages and were ordered released by a Hong Kong court last week.

Meng’s legal team said her lawyers in New York have already reviewed the documents and found evidence that may undermine the allegations of fraud against Meng.

Meng is accused of violating US sanctions against Iran through misleading statements and outright lies. The Americans requested that she be extradited from Canada to face fraud charges. She has been under house arrest since December 2018 as the hearing proceeds.

Meng’s lawyers maintain her rights were violated and Canadian authorities were more interested in appeasing the US than they were in being fair to the Huawei executive.

At a hearing in late March, Meng’s legal team also accused both American and Canadian authorities of failing to conduct themselves honorably and transparently.

The Crown – lawyers representing the Canadian government – opposed the adjournment, saying that Meng’s legal team was on a fishing expedition.

The judge did not give reasons for granting the adjournment but said she will provide them later.