A Canadian court is set to launch hearings Monday on whether a senior Huawei executive should be extradited to the United States.
The U.S. wants Meng Wanzhou, daughter of the Chinese telecom’s founder and chief financial officer of the company, extradited to face fraud charges. She was arrested at Vancouver’s airport in 2018 and has been under house arrest in an area mansion since.
Her arrest prompted China to arrest two Canadian citizens in apparent retaliation. China also cut imports of several Canadian products.
The U.S. said Huawei used a Hong Kong shell company, Skycom, to skirt U.S. sanctions and sell equipment to Iran. Officials allege Meng misled HSBC bank about the company’s activity in Iran.
Meng’s lawyers say her arrest was politically motivated and that the U.S used her as a bargaining chip in trade negotiations with China while Donald Trump was president. They plan to cite comments made by the former president as proof.
They will also say Canadian officials questioned her without her having a lawyer present and forced her to provide access to her electronic devices before she was officially under arrest.
They also say the U.S. is overreaching its jurisdiction by prosecuting a Chinese citizen for activity that happened in Hong Kong.
The hearings are expected to last several weeks.
