A Canadian judge today decided to continue with the extradition procedure to the United States of a leader of the Chinese group Huawei, at the origin of a serious diplomatic crisis between Beijing and Ottawa.
The decision by Heather Homes, a judge at the British Columbia Supreme Court, constitutes a setback for the financial director of Chinese telecommunications giant Meng Wanzhou, detained in 2018 in Vancouver at the request of the United States, who accuse her of bank fraud.
Subsequently released, Wanzhou, the daughter of Huawei’s founder, lives under house arrest on one of her properties in Vancouver, while Beijing calls for release.
It is not known when the process will be resumed and what are the next steps.
Wanzhou’s detention sparked the ire of Beijing who sees the case as a political measure to halt the economic growth of the telecommunications company and China.
The United States court accused Huawei of using a shell company in Hong Kong to sell equipment to Iran, in violation of US sanctions.
The United States considers that 48-year-old Wanzhou committed fraud by misleading HSBC bank about the company’s Iran business.
During the initial hearings last January, Wanzhou’s lawyers argued that the case is about US sanctions on Iran and not a fraud committed by the client, noting that Canada has not imposed any conditioning on the Tehran regime.
In apparent retaliation for the arrest of Wanzhou, China detained former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor, and also imposed some restrictions on several Canadian exports to Chinese territory.
The Beijing authorities have also sentenced the death penalty to a Canadian drug dealer, who was sentenced to prison in China.
