US acted ‘honorably’ in extradition pursuit of Meng of Huawei: Lawyer

Toronto, Aug 6 (UNI/Sputnik) US prosecutors made no effort to mislead a Canadian court in their bid to extradite Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou, a lawyer for the Canadian government argued in a British Columbia courtroom.
On Thursday, Meng’s legal team argued that US government attorneys, acting in “bad faith,” repeatedly misled Canada’s legal system on several key issues pertinent to the extradition proceedings against the executive.
“The authorities are clear that such allegations require cogent evidence to be proved, evidence of a quality that we say is not before this court,” Monika Rahman, representing the Attorney General of Canada (AGC), said addressing the assertions made by Meng’s legal team.
“In our respectful submission, there is no evidence of anything other than what is presumed an extradition proceeding, which is that foreign officials involved in preparing the records [of the case] proceeded in good faith and we stand by our submissions that the requesting state acted honorably, fairly and reasonably throughout these proceedings,” Rahman added.
The Canadian Justice Department attorney admitted that while the United States is bound by the duty of candor, which requires attorneys to be honest and forthright with courts, it is not obliged to present evidence favorable to the defense.
Rahman also made the case that a Huawei PowerPoint presentation, which was the only item from the trove of HSBC documents unsealed by the High Court of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region adduced to the proceedings, revealed that the Chinese technology giant misled the multinational bank regarding its relationship with Skycom and business dealings in Iran.
The US Justice Department alleges that Meng committed fraud by misleading HSBC into approving more than $100 million in transactions that contravened US sanctions on Iran from 2010 to 2014. Tehran-based Skycom is alleged to have acted as the shell company for Huawei in its transactions with Iran.
The PowerPoint shows that Huawei purported itself to be only a business partner of Skycom, divesting from the company at some point before 2013, and claimed that the company was committed to compliance with “internationally accepted rules.”
Meng, the daughter of Huawei founder and CEO Ren Zhengfei, was arrested on December 1, 2018 at Vancouver International Airport during a layover stop at the request of the US government.
Meng remains under house arrest in Vancouver, although is free to traverse the region in the company of state-imposed guards outside of her 11:00 p.m to 6:00 a.m. curfew.
The final arguments in the 18-month-long extradition process are expected to wrap up on August 20.
Holmes is expected give her recommendation on the United States’ extradition request to AGC and Justice David Lametti later in the fall. Lametti has the final say on the request and has the right to refuse extradition in exceptional circumstances.