Huawei CFO extradition hearing to stretch into 2021

[TORONTO] Hearings on Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou's extradition to the United States from Canada will extend into late April 2021, according to documents released by a British Columbia court on Tuesday.

Meng was arrested in December 2018 by Canadian authorities at the Vancouver International Airport on a warrant from the United States charging her with bank fraud for allegedly misleading HSBC on Huawei's business dealings in Iran.

She has been on house arrest in Vancouver and is fighting extradition to the United States.

A Canadian judge ruled in May that the case met the standard of double criminality, meaning her alleged crimes would be illegal in Canada as well as in the United States, dashing her hopes for an early release.

The hearings were initially scheduled to wrap up in October 2020. But in light of the coronavirus pandemic, both Canadian prosecutors representing the federal government and Huawei lawyers agreed to an extended schedule for the hearings, which was approved by a judge on Tuesday.

Hearings relating to Meng's remaining claims - including abuses of process by Canadian and American authorities in her arrest and the request for extradition - will take place between July 2020 and April 2021.

REUTERS