The cross-examination of witness in the United States extradition case of Huawei’s Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou will recommence in a Canadian court where Meng’s lawyers are making efforts to prove that her rights were infringed during the build up to her arrest.
48- year-old Meng was arrested in December 2018 at Vancouver International Airport by Canadian police on a United States warant. She is facing bank fraud charges for allegedly misleading HSBC HSBA.L about Huawei Technologies Co Ltd’s transactions in Iran which made the bank to break U.S. sanctions.
Meng disclosed she was innocent and was trying to prevent the extradition from under house arrest in Vancouver, where she owns a house in one of Canada’s high-cost neighborhoods.
The testimony will hold for 10 days as a continuation of hearings that were scheduled to end in early November but was prolonged as more hearings were scheduled.
As expected, lawyers for Meng and the Canadian government will cross-examine Canadian law enforcement staff and border officials that were involved in Meng’s initial investigation and arrest.
Meng’s lawyers want to get her extradition cancelled on the grounds of alleged abuses of process. They argued that the abuses of process constitute infringements of her civil rights spelt out in Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
During first week of hearings, Canadian government’s prosecutors tried to establish that Meng’s arrest was by the book and any shortcoming in due process should not have impact on the validity of her extradition.
The extradition hearings will be concluded in April 2021.
