Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou loses first round of her bid to avoid extradition to the US
British Columbia/IBNS: Huawei's CFO Meng Wanzhou lost the first round of her bid to avoid extradition to the United States on May 27 after B.C. Supreme Court judge ordered in her ruling to go ahead with the extradition proceedings against Meng, media reports said.
48-year-old Meng's fraud in the United States for allegedly deceiving banks into a possible violation of U.S. economic sanctions against Iran would be considered a crime if it occurred in Canada, said associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes.
Although Canada doesn't have the same economic sanctions against Iran as the U.S., said Holmes, it will not stop someone being prosecuted in Canada for the same offense.
"Canada's law of fraud looks beyond international boundaries," Holmes wrote in her decision.
Prosecutors claimed that Meng, who was arrested at Vancouver's airport in December 2018 on an extradition warrant by putting banks at risk of prosecution and loss because they would be violating U.S. sanctions themselves in handling finances of Huawei, a Chinese multinational technology company, provides telecommunications equipment and sells consumer electronics, and smartphones.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said in a news conference May 27 that the dispute of Meng's release is political, not legal, and added that immediately release of Meng and to ensure her safe return to China at an early date would prevent continuous harm to China-Canada relations.
(Reporting by Asha Bajaj)
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