Huawei’s Meng Wanzhou back in Canadian court for first time since reports about talks to let her go home to China
- Witness hearings continue this week in Meng’s extradition case in the Supreme Court of British Columbia
- Reports last week said Meng was negotiating with the US about a deferred prosecution agreement involving an admission of wrongdoing
Huawei Technologies executive Meng Wanzhou returned to court in Canada on Monday for the first time since reports emerged that she was in talks with the US Department of Justice about a deal to allow her to return to China in exchange for an admission of wrongdoing.
Witness hearings are continuing this week in Meng’s extradition case in the Supreme Court of British Columbia, where she is fighting a US request to have her sent to New York to face trial on fraud charges, which she denies.
On Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Meng was negotiating with the US about a deferred prosecution agreement. Under such a deal, a suspect admits wrongdoing and may offer some other forms of cooperation, in exchange for charges eventually being dropped.
The report said Meng - who was arrested on a US warrant December 1, 2018, at Vancouver’s airport, and has been living under partial house arrest - was resisting the deal because she did not think she had done anything wrong. Reuters also published a similar report.
A spokesman for Canada’s Department of Justice, whose lawyers are representing US interests in the extradition case, told the South China Morning Post that it “cannot comment on what, if any, discussions Ms Meng may be having with the United States”.
