Huawei CFO’s Extradition Case in Canada Set to Resume in August

Sign up for Next China, a weekly email on where the nation stands now and where it's going next.

Huawei Technologies Co. Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou is set to resume in August a years-long extradition fight by arguing to a Canadian judge that new evidence shows a U.S. demand that she be turned over to face fraud charges was flawed and unlawful.

At the British Columbia Supreme Court on Wednesday, lawyers for Meng and the government said hearings will resume Aug. 3 and conclude by Aug. 20. She’d already been granted a delay last month to give her legal team time to examine newly disclosed documents. Meng, the eldest daughter of Huawei’s billionaire founder Ren Zhengfei -- has been detained in Vancouver since her arrest at the airport in December 2018.

After the August hearings, Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes is expected to issue a decision on whether or not to commit Meng to extradition. Appeals could lengthen the process significantly. Some Canadian extradition cases have lasted as long as a decade.

Meng, 49, and the Chinese tech giant have been charged with fraud for allegedly lying to HSBC Holdings Plc about Huawei’s relationship with Skycom, a company doing business in Iran in violation of U.S. trade sanctions. Federal prosecutors claim she mislead HSBC and exposed the bank to criminal liability for sanctions violations.

Meng denies wrongdoing and argued there is no evidence she deceived the bank or put it at risk of a loss -- a prerequisite for fraud. Next month, her defense lawyers plan to ask the Canadian judge to consider new documents obtained from HSBC under an agreement supervised by a Hong Kong court.