Meng Wanzhou extradition case set to continue until 2021 as coronavirus throws schedule into disarray

An ‘aggressive schedule’ would be needed to wrap up the case by early next year, a Canadian court hearing was told

Meng almost revealed her private number to reporters during Wednesday’s hearing, conducted mostly by phone

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Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou leaves her Vancouver home on May 27 to appear in British Columbia’s Supreme Court. Photo: AFP

Published: 2:09am, 4 Jun 2020Updated: 5:54am, 25 Dec 2021

The extradition hearings in Canada for Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, wanted on fraud charges in the United States, are set to continue until 2021, after Covid-19 threw scheduling for the complicated case into disarray.

At a hearing in Vancouver’s Supreme Court on Wednesday, Meng’s defence and the Canadian government lawyers representing US interests in the case jointly suggested that hearings be extended until early 2021.

Hearings in the case, which has drawn worldwide attention and battered China’s relations with the US and Canada, had previously been set to last until October or November.

But the Covid-19 pandemic forced that schedule to be scrapped. British Columbia’s Supreme Court halted normal operations in March as a pandemic precaution.

Huawei Technologies chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou leaves her home to attend a court hearing in Vancouver on May 27. Photo: Reuters

As a further precaution, Meng and both sets of lawyers attended Wednesday’s hearing by phone, with journalists allowed to listen in.

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