A Canadian judge has approved the release on bail of the chief financial officer of Chinese telecoms group Huawei, despite concerns raised by the U.S. that she is a flight risk, Financial Times reports.
Justice William Ehrcke said Meng Wanzhou must pay for private security guards and post C$10m (US$7.5m) bail, including C$7m in cash and $3m from at least five sureties.
Meng, who was released from custody on Tuesday, must also wear an ankle bracelet, be subject to a curfew at home between 11pm and 6am, and not travel outside certain areas of the city. At least two officers provided by the security company Lions Gate must accompany her at all times. She must also surrender her passports.
The ruling came on the third day of a bail hearing after her arrest on December 1 in Vancouver airport while changing flights. The U.S. requested her arrest after she was charged in New York with misleading banks about Huawei’s connections with a company suspected of breaching US sanctions on exports to Iran.
Each fraud count carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison. Meng could face a lengthy legal fight in Vancouver. Contested extradition cases in Canada can take years to resolve and have been known to run for a decade, said Daniel Brown, an attorney and extradition expert in Toronto, FT writes.
The U.S. must present a detailed case to the court within 60 days, but scheduling hearings and working through various levels of appeal often mean a protracted process, he added.
As a final step, defendants can also appeal to Canada’s justice minister, adding a bigger political dimension to the battle. Canada has already come under severe criticism in China for agreeing to make the arrest on behalf of the U.S. and is likely to face political pressure from Beijing if the case becomes drawn out, FT adds.
“We have every confidence that the Canadian and US legal systems will reach a just conclusion in the following proceedings,” Huawei said in a statement after bail was granted.
The arrest of Meng, daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, has sparked a political storm between the United States and China, and the bail hearing attracted the attention of global media.
Justice Ehrcke noted in his ruling that Meng had no criminal record and that many of her neighbors and friends had attested to her character. Her lawyer, David Martin, said Meng had told him she wanted to be at her home in Vancouver, and added that her words expressed “an attitude with intent to comply.”
Vancouver neighbors and friends pledged portions of their homes and, in one case, retirement income to support the bail request.
Martin addressed concerns raised the previous day in court about the eligibility of her husband, known as Carlos, to post surety worth C$15m, representing two Vancouver homes and C$1m cash, on the ground that he only had a visitor’s visa for Canada.
The lawyer said his team had worked “all night” to come up with alternative proposals, which included submitting affidavits from various citizens in Vancouver who had either worked with Meng or claimed to know her well and considered her a good friend.
Each had pledged portions of their own homes as sureties, expressing confidence that she would not breach bail terms, with a total C$3.15m pledged.
Crown lawyer John Gibb-Carsley said Meng’s husband was not an appropriate person to supervise Ms Meng because their “interests are aligned.” The couple’s “ordinary settled life is in China,” he argued, FT notes.
But Martin countered that it was “fanciful” to believe the whole family would flee to China. Meng’s in-laws at times live in one of the Vancouver homes, and the couple planned to bring their daughter to Vancouver for school.
Gibb-Carsley dismissed the defence argument that each of the citizens who were willing to post surely would work together to ensure compliance with her bail terms, FT informs.
Be the first to comment