Huawei CFO's team asks judge for adjournment in final extradition hearings
VANCOUVER — Lawyers for Meng Wanzhou asked a B.C. Supreme Court judge Monday to delay the final leg of hearings in the Huawei executive's extradition case one week before it is set to begin.
Richard Peck said the legal team needs time to review new
evidence obtained through a court order in Hong Kong that could support its
argument that the United States misled Canadian officials in describing the
allegations against Meng.
"What we request is a reasonable time in which to
assess the documents and determine their likely admissibility," he said.
In response, a lawyer for Canada's attorney general argued
there's no basis to believe the documents will be relevant and accused Meng's
team of trying to turn the extradition hearing into a trial.
After 2 1/2 years of legal proceedings, "and mere days
from reaching the finish line, the applicant asks this court to take a several
month pause. Her request should be denied," the Crown said in a written
response.
Meng was arrested at Vancouver's airport in 2018 at the
request of the U.S. to face fraud charges that both she and Huawei deny.
She is accused of lying to HSBC about Huawei's control of
subsidiary Skycom during a presentation in 2013, putting the bank at risk of
violating U.S. sanctions against Iran.
The court has heard that Huawei sold Skycom to Canicula
Holdings, another company that Huawei controlled financially, in 2007.
While Meng's Canadian lawyers have not yet seen most of the
documents from HSBC and their contents are unclear, Peck said it's believed
they will shed light on what the bank knew about the relationship between the
companies and how much it relied on Meng's 2013 presentation.
"We say these materials are relevant because they are
referenced from the very bank at the very time including the very parties
involved in this matter," Peck said.
Meng's team also said in court documents that Canada's
attorney general should launch an investigation into whether Meng was arrested
based on inaccurate information.
Peck proposed that the final three weeks of the hearing, set
to begin April 26, be adjourned until Aug. 3 to allow time for such a probe, as
well as for COVID-19 cases to subside.
But Robert Frater, a lawyer for Canada's attorney general,
said there's no evidence to believe the new documents are relevant to the
extradition case.
Meng's team relies entirely on two letters from Huawei's
U.S. lawyers in which allegations are made, but support for the allegations is
redacted and those lawyers are "aligned" with Meng, he said.
He added that the U.S. has "vigorously" denied the
allegations, so Meng's team is essentially asking the B.C. Supreme Court to
weigh one side against the other, a job better suited for the U.S. trial.
Frater also accused Meng's team of "jurisdiction
shopping" for a court that would approve the document disclosure.
Meng's lawyers previously failed in an effort to access the
same documents through a court in the United Kingdom.
"Having received the answer 'no' from the U.K. court,
then my friends went to Hong Kong and inexplicably, HSBC, which was the same
litigant that appeared in the court in the U.K., completely reversed its
position after having won on every single point in the U.K. court," Frater
said.
"HSBC for reasons known only to itself turned around
and decided to agree to an order."
Frater called the adjournment application an "11th
hour" request, adding the Hong Kong court provided no timeline for when
the documents might be shared with Meng's team.
There's no credible basis for an independent investigation
and Canada has no duty to investigate the evidence underlying extradition
requests made by its treaty partners, he said.
The broad public interest in Meng's extradition case only
adds to the urgency of wrapping it up, he said.
"Extraditions hearings are supposed to be
expeditious," Frater said.
Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes reserved her decision
until Wednesday.
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