VANCOUVER — World politics, huge cash, excessive know-how and the intricacies of Canadian legislation will come collectively on Monday when the ext
VANCOUVER — World politics, huge cash, excessive know-how and the intricacies of Canadian legislation will come collectively on Monday when the extradition listening to of Meng Wanzhou, the chief monetary officer of the Chinese language telecommunications big Huawei, begins in a Vancouver courtroom.
Ms. Meng, 47, a former secretary at Huawei who rose to develop into a public face of the corporate, was arrested in Vancouver in December 2018, after the US requested her extradition on fraud costs. She has been detained within the metropolis since then.
The arrest has put Canada in a troublesome spot between two world powers — China and the US — and severely broken the nation’s relations with China. Huawei is considered one of China’s most distinguished corporations.
Shortly after Ms. Meng’s arrest, China detained — in retaliation, some say — two Canadians and accused them of espionage. It has additionally punished Canada by proscribing imports of pork, canola oil and different Canadian merchandise. Complicating issues, Canada is within the strategy of deciding whether or not to permit Huawei to take part within the improvement of its subsequent technology 5G community.
The problem is fraught as a result of the US authorities has repeatedly accused Huawei of spying and stealing know-how from its Western rivals. The Trump administration has argued that the corporate is in thrall to the Chinese language authorities and a menace to nationwide safety. Huawei vehemently denies that.
Because the authorized case unfolds on the imposing Supreme Court of British Columbia in Vancouver, right here’s the background and what’s at stake.
Who’s Meng Wanzhou?
Ms. Meng is the eldest daughter of Huawei’s founder, Ren Zhengfei.
She was born within the western metropolis of Chengdu, has a grasp’s diploma in accounting and started her profession at Huawei 25 years in the past. Earlier than her arrest, her obligations on the firm, the place she can be deputy chairwoman of the board, included saying its monetary outcomes.
Ms. Meng, who’s often known as Cathy or Sabrina, is married; she has 4 youngsters.
Since her arrest, Ms. Meng’s life has been circumscribed. She has been out on bail of 10 million Canadian {dollars} and comparatively free to journey about Vancouver, the place she and her husband personal two costly properties. She is underneath 24-hour surveillance and should put on a GPS tracker on her ankle.
She is now residing in a gated seven-bedroom mansion, valued at about $14 million Canadian {dollars}, within the metropolis’s unique Shaughnessy neighborhood. The choose within the case allowed her to maneuver there from her different residence — an estimated $6 million, six-bedroom home in one other rich neighborhood.
Beneath the phrases of her bail, she is allowed to go away her home till an 11 p.m. curfew, together with touring to Richmond, a close-by metropolis with a various Chinese language group, meals courts with regional Chinese language delicacies and a vibrant cultural life.
Pals and work colleagues can go to her. Her household got here to Canada in the course of the Christmas vacation interval, based on a member of her safety element.
Since being detained, Ms. Meng lately wrote, in a letter printed on Huawei’s web site, she has skilled “moments of worry,” but in addition discovered extra time for herself. She passes the time by, amongst different issues, studying and oil portray.
Ms. Meng’s bail circumstances have spurred anger in Canada as a result of critics have contrasted her environment with the harsh conditions of the Canadians arrested by China, who’re denied entry to attorneys and their households.
What is going on in court docket this week?
In January 2019, the US unveiled a sweeping indictment that, amongst different issues, costs that Ms. Meng fraudulently deceived 4 banks into clearing transactions in Iran via a subsidiary firm, in violation of sanctions in opposition to Iran.
Over a number of days, Affiliate Chief Justice Heather Holmes will look at whether or not the case in opposition to Ms. Meng satisfies a elementary requirement for extraditing an individual underneath Canadian legislation: that the crime she is accused of in the US constitutes a criminal offense in Canada. This is named the authorized idea of “double criminality.”
Prosecutors in Canada are specializing in the accusation that Ms. Meng lied to representatives of the financial institution HSBC in 2013 about Huawei’s relationship with Skycom, an organization doing enterprise in Iran. Prosecutors contend she instructed HSBC that Skycom was a companion though it was, in actual fact, a Huawei subsidiary, placing HSBC prone to sanctions.
“Inducing a financial institution to increase monetary companies by mendacity to it’s prison,” the prosecution wrote in paperwork submitted to the court docket.
Ms. Meng has denied the allegations. Her protection argues that the crime she is being accused of doesn’t represent a criminal offense in Canada as a result of Canada has not imposed sanctions in opposition to corporations doing enterprise in Iran. In addition they contend that there was no threat of economic loss for HSBC, a prerequisite for fraud to have taken place, underneath Canadian legislation.
“In essence, this can be a case of U.S. sanction enforcement masquerading as Canadian fraud,” Ms….