Meng Wanzhou seeks three-month delay to marathon extradition case, citing new evidence from HSBC

The Huawei executive’s lawyers say new evidence from the bank may help prove US authorities misled the Canadian court, and they deny trying to ‘string out’ case

But Canadian government lawyers say Meng is trying to turn the extradition hearing into a trial, and the adjournment request should be denied

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Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies, leaves her home to attend a court hearing in Vancouver on Monday. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 1:42am, 20 Apr 2021Updated: 5:52am, 25 Dec 2021

Huawei Technologies executive Meng Wanzhou’s marathon extradition case may be about to get even longer, after her lawyers asked to adjourn the final phase of the hearing for more than three months, saying they expect new evidence about her alleged bank fraud case from HSBC.

They applied to the Supreme Court of British Columbia in Vancouver on Monday to delay the last three weeks of the case until August 3, in light of a Hong Kong court settlement in which the bank agreed to provide more material supposedly relevant to the case. The hearings had been slated to start on April 26.

Meng’s lawyer Richard Peck told Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes that the “modest” adjournment was necessary as a matter of “fundamental fairness”, and he denied “just trying to string this out”.

Canadian government lawyers, representing US interests in the case, cried foul.

Meng Wanzhou arrives at the Supreme Court in Vancouver in this April 1 file photo. Photo: Bloomberg

“Two and a half years from the start of these proceedings, countless hours spent fashioning a schedule agreed by both sides, and mere days from reaching the finishing line, the applicant asks this court to take a several month pause,” they said in a written response. “Her request should be denied.”

In court, the Canadian Department of Justice’s top lawyer, Robert Frater, said: “There is literally no basis for this request … they are asking once again to have this court turn itself into a trial court.”