There are ‘serious concerns’ over the Meng Wanzhou case due to Donald Trump’s comments, her lawyer tells court
- The Huawei CFO faces extradition to the US after she was accused of lying to banks about the company’s alleged dealings with Iran
- In court on Wednesday, her lawyer raised worries over ‘political character and motivation, comments by the US president’ in the context of the case
A lawyer for Huawei Technologies executive Meng Wanzhou has accused Canada of letting the US pursue her extradition despite the “political character” of the case, citing comments by US President Donald Trump, at a proceeding in British Columbia’s Supreme Court.
Meng, Huawei’s chief financial officer and the daughter of founder Ren Zhengfei, was in court in Vancouver on Wednesday to set a date for the formal start of her extradition hearing. Proceedings were adjourned until May 8.
She is wanted by the United States, which has indicted her on charges of defrauding banks while violating US sanctions against Iran. She was arrested at Vancouver’s airport on December 1, as she changed planes on her way from Hong Kong to Mexico.
One of her lawyers, Richard Peck, called it “a rare case”, saying he had concerns about Trump’s role.
“There are serious concerns … concerns about political character and motivation, comments by the US president,” he said. “There are issues that resound in the context of double criminality.”
