HSBC evidence shows US made ‘outright false’ claims, Meng Wanzhou’s lawyer argues at extradition hearing
- The Huawei executive is seeking to have hundreds of pages of HSBC documents admitted to her Canadian extradition case
- The documents show there is ‘no plausible case’ to have Meng committed for fraud, lawyer Mark Sandler contends
A trove of HSBC material consisting of more than 300 pages of emails and internal bank documents shows the US made selective, misleading and “outright false” claims to Meng Wanzhou’s Canadian extradition hearing, the Huawei executive’s lawyers said on Tuesday.
The American record of its case against Meng – in which she is accused of defrauding the bank – is thus “so defective” that her extradition hearing should place no reliance on it, her lawyer Mark Sandler told a Vancouver court as he argued for the HSBC documents to be admitted as evidence.
It is “relatively rare” that a person sought for extradition would seek to challenge the accuracy of the requesting state’s record of the case, Sandler acknowledged.
However, “we do not resile from categorising this as an exceptional case that demands an exceptional remedy”, Sandler told Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes, who is hearing the marathon extradition battle in the Supreme Court of British Columbia.
The HSBC documents were released on Tuesday, after Holmes last week lifted a publication ban. The release of the material was delayed by several days so that names and identifying details of HSBC staff and others could be redacted, in line with Holmes’ ruling.
