The government lawyers who are asking for her to be extradited to the US to face charges of fraud told the court that the bank documents would be better introduced into any trial in the US.
Heather Holmes, the associate chief justice in Vancouver, told the court on Friday: “My decision is that the application is denied, the HSBC documents will not be admitted.”
Meng’s team had hoped that Holmes would admit the documents to the extradition hearing. They believe they show HSBC was fully aware of the relationship between Huawei and Hong Kong-based Skycom, a front company the vendor used to sell kit to Iran. Hence, they would have argued, there was no fraud being committed on HSBC.
Now that argument will have to wait for the US courts, if Meng loses her extradition case. That is likely to continue for some time: final hearings are due to start on 3 August, and Huawei’s team has warned privately that any decision one way or the other is likely to be followed by appeals from the losing side.
A Huawei spokesperson told Capacity at the weekend: “We respect the court’s ruling, but regret this outcome. Even though the court did not permit Ms Meng to introduce additional evidence, the new documents demonstrate clearly that HSBC, including its senior executives, were aware of Huawei’s relationship with Skycom and its business in Iran. It shows that the United States’ Record of the Case (ROC) and supplemental ROCs are manifestly unreliable. The hearings will continue, and as always we support Ms Meng in her pursuit of justice and freedom.”
