Vancouver, Oct 31 (IANS) A Canadian judge has agreed to allow the lawyers of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou, who is accused by the US of helping the Chinese telecommunications giant dodge American sanctions on Iran, to pursue their claim that Washington misled Ottawa about the basics of the case.
In a ruling posted online on Thursday, British Columbia Supreme Court’s Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes said there was an “air of reality to Meng’s allegations of abuse of process in relation to the requesting state’s conduct”, reports Xinhua news agency
At past hearings in the court, Meng’s lawyers said the evidence was strong enough to prove that the US omitted key components of the case that undermine allegations of fraud against her.
In her ruling, Holmes said she will allow two statements from the missing slides to be included as evidence in the extradition case.
Holmes released the ruling as Meng’s lawyers were gathering evidence related to the second line of argument that there was an abuse of process: the claim that her rights were violated at the time of her arrest.
Meng was arrested on December 1, 2018 at Vancouver International Airport at the request of the US, which has been seeking her extradition on fraud charges.
Both Meng and Huawei have repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
At past hearings, Meng’s lawyers argued that Canadian and US authorities committed an abuse of process while questioning Meng before her arrest.
The lawyers said that the wrongdoing on the part of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) officers who detained and arrested Meng meant that the Canadian prosecution should not be able to shield certain details of their planning from public view.
They claimed that US and Canadian authorities conspired to violate her rights at the time of her arrest by having the CBSA detain and question her without a lawyer and seize her electronic devices.
–IANS
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