By Tessa Vikander and Moira Warburton
VANCOUVER/TORONTO, Jan 20 (Reuters) - Huawei Chief Financial
Officer Meng Wanzhou will be in a Vancouver courtroom on Monday
for the first day of her extradition trial, a process expected
to take months - possibly years - to decide whether she can be
extradited from Canada to the United States.
The United States has charged her with bank fraud, and
accused her of misleading HSBC Holdings Plc about
Huawei Technologies Co Ltd's business in Iran.
Meng, 47 is the daughter of Huawei's billionaire founder Ren
Zhengfei and remains free on bail in Canada. She has said she is
innocent and is fighting the extradition in part because her
alleged conduct was not illegal in Canada, an argument known
legally as "double criminality."
Unlike the United States, Canada did not have sanctions
against Iran at the time Canadian officials authorized
commencing with the extradition, her lawyers have said.
The first phase of the trial will last at least four days,
but legal experts previously said it could be years before a
decision on Meng's extradition is made since Canada's
slow-moving justice system allows many decisions to be appealed.
Richard Kurland, a federal policy expert and lawyer who is
not involved with the case calls Meng's double criminality
argument around the absence of Canadian sanctions against Iran a
sure bet.
"I think the defence has a slam dunk. There are no Iranian
sanctions in Canada and anything (the prosecutors bring up)
that's related to an Iranian sanction in Canada may well be
dismissed," he said.
The case has had a chilling effect on Canadian-Chinese
relations. China has accused Canada's arrest of being
politically motivated, a charge further complicated by U.S.
President Donald Trump comments to Reuters that he would move to
cancel the charges if it would help him get a better trade deal
with China.
Soon after Meng's arrest, China detained two Canadians --
former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael
Spavor -- and handed over the cases of to a prosecutor in China
in early December last year.
Since her arrest Meng has been living in a mansion in
Vancouver's Shaughnessy neighbourhood, among some of the most
expensive real estate in the country.
Meng's legal team argued in November that she could not be
extradited as Canada does not have sanctions against Iran at the
time Canadian officials authorized commencing with the
extradition, her conduct was not illegal.
In response, Canada's attorney general said that Meng was
arrested on charges of fraud and misleading HSBC, which is a
crime in both countries.
However, the prosecution's argument that Meng committed
fraud might stand up, Kurland added.
"But there's still spaghetti clinging to the wall: you have
broad allegations of fraud, and so the position of the crown may
be 'well even if the Iranian sanctions material is taken off our
desk, we can establish fraud, it's a standalone, not related to
Iranian sanctions. There was false information or whatever given
to the bank,'" Kurland added.
In filings released on Friday, Meng's lawyers said that
extraditing Meng to the United States based on American
sanctions against Iran would set a dangerous precedent and could
even undermine Canada's policy towards Iran, Meng's lawyers
argued in court documents released on Friday.
Meng's legal team will call evidence in the last week of
April, and the second phase, focusing on abuse of process and
whether Canadian officials followed the law while arresting
Meng, will begin in June. Concluding arguments are scheduled for
the last week of September and first week of October this year.
(Reporting by Tessa Vikander in Vancouver and Moira Warburton
in Toronto
Editing by Denny Thomas and Lisa Shumaker)
HSBC Holdings (HSBA)