Aug. 11, 2021 – A Canadian government lawyer urged a B.C. judge hearing the extradition case of Chinese executive Meng Wanzhou to be respectful of the United States in assessing how it prepared the evidence against her.
The U.S. has an extradition treaty with Canada, and extradition law presumes that the evidence it summarizes for Canadian authorities is reliable and compiled in good faith. Ms. Meng’s legal team has argued that the U.S. – including former president Donald Trump – committed multiple instances of misconduct. It has asked Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes of the B.C. Supreme Court to declare an abuse of process and throw out the case.
The defence team said last week that the judge is the only check on the conduct of the state requesting an extradition. Taken individually or together, it said, the instances of misconduct require a stay of the proceedings, to protect the Canadian justice system’s integrity and a fair process for Ms. Meng. Among the allegations: that the U.S. deliberately misled the Canadian justice system by omitting key information pointing toward Ms. Meng’s innocence on the fraud charge against her. (The chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. is charged with misrepresenting her company’s operations to a global bank, HSBC, in an attempt to evade U.S. sanctions on Iran.) Globe and Mail reports. | READ MORE
