Heather Holmes, the judge hearing her extradition case, granted her wish to adjourn the proceedings to early August, after one more hearing next week.
The reason for the delay, of three and a half months, is so that lawyers for Meng (pictured) can examine the documents released by HSBC, after the bank’s Hong Kong operation agreed last week to release them.
Holmes told the court that she would accept a delay until “on or around” 3 August, but that she would accept no further delays. And she said she wanted any applications resulting from the HSBC documents to be made before the court meets again.
The US wants Canada to extradite her to face charges relating to alleged fraud concerning exports to Iran. Meng and Huawei deny all the charges, which say that she deceived the bank when discussing exports of Huawei equipment to Iran, in contravention of a US embargo.
The documents in question relate to what HSBC knew or didn’t know about Huawei as well as its intermediaries in its business with Iran, Skycom and Canicula Holdings.
Lawyers for the US are saying that in a Hong Kong meeting with HSBC she misrepresented Huawei’s operations in Iran, causing the bank to be at risk of sanctions violations.
Her case is that HSBC did know — and also that the US has no jurisdiction in the matter, as HSBC is a UK-registered bank. The US says it does have jurisdiction because the transactions were in US dollars.
