Meng (pictured), who was arrested at Vancouver airport in December 2018, is facing US charges that she defrauded HSBC about her relationship with Skycom, a Hong Kong company that in 2013 allegedly acted as an intermediary in selling Huawei equipment to Iran.
Meng and her lawyers have consistently said that the bank knew of the relationship between Huawei, Skycom and Meng herself, and that HSBC incurred no financial loss.
Her lawyers have said there was an abuse of process from the moment of her arrest and have asked for the proceedings to be dropped.
Heather Holmes, the associate chief justice of the British Columbia supreme court, who has been hearing the case, said last night that the next hearing will be in two months, on 21 October. She is widely expected to give her decision then – on whether there is enough evidence to convict Meng if the alleged crime had been committed in Canada.
According to reports from the Vancouver courtroom, Holmes said during the proceedings: “On the facts, isn’t it unusual that one will see a fraud case with no actual harm many years later?”
She asked a prosecuting lawyer of HSBC: “And one in which the alleged victim, a large institution, appears to have had numerous people within the institution who had all the facts that are now said to be misrepresented?”
Whatever the judge’s decision, observers expect one side or the other to appeal.
Huawei said in a statement overnight that “from the start, [it] has been confident in Ms Meng’s innocence and has trusted the Canadian judicial system”.
It added: “Accordingly, Huawei has been supporting Ms Meng’s pursuit of justice and freedom. We continue to do so today.”
