[NTDNewsonAugust192021Beijingtime]On the afternoon of August 18, the extradition case of Meng Wanzhou, the daughter of Huawei’s founder and Huawei’s chief financial officer, was completed in the Supreme Court of British Columbia, Canada. It will be announced on the 21st when the final judgment will be made.
After two and a half years of legal proceedings and debate, whether Meng Wanzhou will extradite the United States has attracted international public opinion. The following summarizes the possible course of the case after the hearing.
Meng Wanzhou, 49, was detained at Vancouver International Airport in December 2018 and was accused of bank fraud by the U.S. Department of Justice. He misled HSBC Holdings regarding Huawei’s business relationship in Iran during the U.S. sanctions against Iran. Soon after, China (the CCP) detained two Canadians and sentenced one of them to 11 years in prison this month for espionage, a move widely regarded as Beijing’s retaliation.
Now, Meng Wanzhou is waiting for the decision of Canada’s Deputy Chief Justice Heather Holmes. CNN predicts that the ruling may take several months.
*What is the judge thinking about?
Under normal circumstances, the extradition hearings were completed within one day, but Meng Wanzhou’s hearings went on intermittently for several years.
According to a Reuters report, Holmes first ruled whether the Meng Wanzhou case meets the double criminal standard, that is, whether the crimes charged by the United States against her are illegal in Canada. In May 2020, Holmes ruled that Meng Wanzhou met the double criminal standard and approved the case to proceed.
Holmes is now deciding whether the abuse of procedure filed by Meng Wanzhou’s defense team is sufficient to suspend extradition. The issues that the judge must consider for this complaint include:
1. The defense believes that former U.S. President Trump (Trump) politicized the case, which prevented Meng Wanzhou from getting a fair trial in the United States;
2. The Canadian and American authorities committed misconduct during the arrest of Meng Wanzhou;
3. The defense alleged that the case evidence submitted by the United States misled Canada.
However, Canadian prosecutors said that these complaints are not sufficient to suspend extradition, or that this is a problem that the US courts have to deal with.
*What kind of judgment can the judge make?
According to reports, the Canadian extradition standard is lower than the trial standard.
As a Canadian judge, Holmes is not qualified to determine whether the person is guilty or innocent under the law of another country, so the judge only needs to decide whether the evidence against Meng Wanzhou is sufficient for the trial to proceed in Canada.
If Holmes’ judgment is conducive to extradition, the Canadian Minister of Justice will make the final approval. If it is decided to stop the extradition, the procedure may stop there. In the past, the Canadian government has lodged an appeal against an extradition decision.
*If the judge supports extradition, what will happen?
Meng Wanzhou can appeal the judge’s decision and request a judicial review of the attorney general’s decision. This kind of appeal may be litigated in court for several years, and finally may not have a result until the Supreme Court of Canada. During this period, Meng Wanzhou may strive to reassess her bail conditions.
According to Bloomberg’s review of historical data on Canadian extradition trials last week, Meng Wanzhou’s chance of escaping from extradition was only 1%.
(Reporter Chen Beichen Comprehensive Report / Chief Editor: Lin Qing)
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