Canadian authorities have given the go ahead for the extradition of Huawei’s chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou to face charges brought by US authorities that the Chinese firm breached unilateral American-imposed sanctions against Iran and that it stole trade secrets from the telecom firm T-Mobile.
The charges have been filed by the US departments of Justice, Commerce and Homeland Security and are set down for hearing in New York and Washington state.
The Huawei executive was seized by Canadian authorities at the request of the US at the beginning of December at the same time as US President Trump was meeting with China’s President Xi Jinping in Buenos Aires in trade talks.
The US filed a formal request for the extradition in late January and the Canadian Justice Department complied with the request yesterday evening.
A statement from Meng’s defence lawyers expressed its disappointment with the Canadian decision in the face of what it called “the political nature of the US charges.”
“Our client maintains that she is innocent of any wrongdoing and that the US prosecution and extradition constitute an abuse of the processes of law.”
Meng’s next court appearance in Vancouver will take place on March 6 at which the Justice Department is expected to proceed with the extradition hearing which could involve lengthy legal processes.