Huawei CFO Has ‘Good Case’ Against Extradition To US

The legal case against against Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer (CFO) of Chinese networking giant Huawei Technologies may not be clear cut as the US would like the world to believe.

This is after a senior Canadian diplomat said that Wanzhou could make a make a good case against being extradited to the United States, in part due to remarks made by US President Donald Trump.

It comes after another Canadian diplomat reported this week, and subsequentially confirmed by the US Justice Department, that the US would seek the formal extradition from Canada of Meng Wanzhou.

Good arguments

Into this waded Canada’s ambassador to China John McCallum, who in comments broadcast on Wednesday to Chinese-language media, who according to Reuters said that Wanzhou had “good arguments on her side,” the first of which was “political involvement by comments from Donald Trump in her case.”

Wanzhou was arrested in early December by Canadian authorities for alleged sanction busting with Iran. The arrest was carried out on behalf of the United States.

China immediately warned of ‘consequences’, and has also warned Canada there will be ‘repercussions’ if it decides to ban the use of 5G equipment from Huawei on security grounds like other Western nations.

China, it should be noted, has also arrested two Canadian men, an entrepreneur (Michael Spavor) and a former diplomat (Michael Kovrig) last month.

Meanwhile another Canadian, Robert Lloyd Schellenberg, who was jailed for drug smuggling, has also been sentenced to death.

Wanzhou remains under house arrest in Canada and is scheduled to appear in court on 6 February where authorities will decided whether she should be extradited to the US.

Iranian sanctions

But the remarks by Canada’s ambassador to China has suggested that Wanzhou could avoid extradition to the US.

McCallum reportedly noted that Canada has not applied the same sanctions against Iran as the United States.

“Canada does not sign onto these Iran sanctions. So I think she has some strong arguments she can make before a judge,” he reportedly said.

Last month President Trump signalled his willingness to get involved in the case.

He would intervene if it would serve national security interests or help close a trade deal with China.

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