Meng Wanzhou extradition hearings finally begin, with defence blasting fraud case against Huawei CFO as ‘fiction’

The formal extradition hearings that will help decide the fate of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou got under way in Vancouver on Monday, more than a year after her arrest, in a case that has infuriated Beijing and symbolises challenges to the geopolitical order posed by China’s rise.

Meng, Huawei’s chief financial officer and daughter of founder Ren Zhengfei, appeared behind two layers of bulletproof glass in the high-capacity, high-security courtroom 20 of the British Columbia Supreme Court complex.

Meng’s lawyer Richard Peck commenced his arguments by asserting that Meng should be released if the case against her could not support the allegations of fraud, under the extradition test of “double criminality".

“Would we be here in the absence of US sanctions law? ... The answer is no,” said Peck. “This allegation is founded on a breach of US sanctions, sanctions Canada has repudiated.”

"It is a fiction,” that the US has any interest in policing interactions "between a private bank and a private citizen halfway around the world, Peck said. "It's all about sanctions.”

Meng was arrested at Vancouver’s international airport on December 1, 2018, during a stopover from Hong Kong, on an arrest warrant requested by the United States. US authorities want Meng to face trial in New York, accusing her of bank fraud related to alleged breaches of US sanctions on Iran by Huawei.

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