{"id":110364,"date":"2021-03-23T23:28:37","date_gmt":"2021-03-23T23:28:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/?p=110364"},"modified":"2021-03-23T23:28:37","modified_gmt":"2021-03-23T23:28:37","slug":"canada-judge-rejects-huawei-cfos-request-to-add-evidence-in-extradition-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/markets\/canada-judge-rejects-huawei-cfos-request-to-add-evidence-in-extradition-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada judge rejects Huawei CFO's request to add evidence in extradition case"},"content":{"rendered":"
VANCOUVER (Reuters) – A Canadian judge rejected Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou\u2019s request to add evidence in her extradition case, as a federal prosecutor argued on Tuesday that Meng\u2019s legal team had presented a story of her arrest that did not fit the facts.<\/p> Meng\u2019s lawyers wanted to include an affidavit from a Huawei accountant as evidence, which they said would shed light on the company\u2019s financial practices and help prove Meng\u2019s innocence as she fights extradition from Canada on charges of bank fraud in the United States.<\/p>\n Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes of the British Columbia Supreme Court rejected the affidavit, the third such request made by Meng\u2019s legal team, stating the evidence \u201cis not relevant\u201d to the extradition hearing. Much of the team\u2019s other requests were similarly rejected.<\/p>\n Meng, 49, was arrested at Vancouver International Airport in December 2018 on a U.S. warrant that alleges she misled HSBC about Huawei Technologies Co Ltd\u2019s business dealings in Iran, causing the bank to break U.S. sanctions.<\/p>\n Meng says she is innocent. She is being held under house arrest in Vancouver, where she has been fighting extradition for two years.<\/p>\n Prosecutor Robert Frater, representing the Canadian government, said the witnesses who testified at Meng\u2019s extradition hearings acknowledged errors candidly and were \u201canything but liars,\u201d as charged by Meng\u2019s legal team in court.<\/p>\n Frater said the defense laid out an \u201cexciting\u201d narrative, involving a covert criminal investigation, lying and a cross-border cover-up. He called it a stark contrast from the more \u201cprosaic\u201d one from the prosecution, which described public officials doing their jobs without a playbook on how to handle such a rare case.<\/p>\n Meng\u2019s legal team argued last week that misconduct by police and border officials during Meng\u2019s arrest and interrogation, including an alleged delay of her detainment by police, violated her rights and that her devices were seized without proper authority and her device passcodes improperly obtained.<\/p>\n Frater said the arrest was carried out in a reasonable amount of time that took into consideration the responsibilities of the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA). He said the agency had the authority to obtain her passcodes and that they were passed on to Canadian police by mistake.<\/p>\n The mistake did not violate Meng\u2019s rights because evidence showed police did not use them or pass them on to the FBI, he added.<\/p>\n Meng\u2019s arrest frayed diplomatic ties between Ottawa and Beijing. Shortly after she was detained, China arrested two Canadians on espionage charges. They both faced trial in the past week, although it is not known when their verdicts will be announced. [nL1N2LK018]<\/p>\n The prosecution is expected to resume arguments on Wednesday. Meng\u2019s case is set to wrap up in May.<\/p>\n