Huawei CFO hopes to avoid US extradition after Trump’s ‘corrosive’ comments
Lawyers for Huawei’s chief financial officer have said she will seek a stay of extradition, citing a string of civil rights abuses including comments made by US President Donald Trump about the case.
Meng Wanzhou, who is the daughter of Huawei founder Reng Zengfei, was arrested in Vancouver in December on allegations relating to the violation of sanctions against Iran.
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But Meng’s defence lawyers have filed a document to a Canadian court stating they intend to fight attempts to extradite the executive to the US, Reuters reported.
The submission cited “corrosive” comments made by Trump, who has said he would intervene in the case if it would help secure a trade deal with China.
The lawyers also claimed Meng was unlawfully detained, searched and interrogated at Vancouver airport and her arrest was delayed under the guise of an immigration check.
At a pre-extradition hearing they also insisted there was no evidence that Meng had misrepresented Huawei’s relationship with an Iranian company to a bank, as the US has alleged.
The case has sparked a bitter diplomatic dispute between the US and China, and Huawei has insisted the arrest was “guided by political considerations and tactics, not by the rule of law”.
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Beijing has repeatedly called for Meng’s release, and more than a dozen Canadian citizens have been arrested in China since December in apparent retaliation.
Meng’s lawyers did not say when they would apply for the stay of the extradition hearing. The Huawei boss is next due in court in September, and the case could continue for years.