Huawei executive gets new bail term: Detention in a $16 million home

A Canadian judge on Wednesday altered the bail terms of a Chinese tech executive facing possible extradition to the United States on fraud charges, granting her lawyers’ request that she be allowed to move from a $6 million, six-bedroom house in Vancouver to a $16 million, seven-bedroom mansion in the city’s exclusive Shaughnessy neighbourhood.

Lawyers for the executive, Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of the Chinese tech giant Huawei, requested the change at a hearing before the Supreme Court of British Columbia. The courtroom was filled to capacity, a reflection of the interest in the case since Meng was arrested in December by Canadian officials in Vancouver.

Her arrest put Canada in the centre of a diplomatic struggle between China and the United States, which sought her arrest and is seeking her extradition. The United States has since accused Meng of, among other things, deceiving four banks to enable Huawei to evade US sanctions against Iran.

Meng’s arrest has also created a rift between China and Canada. China has detained — in retaliation, some say — two Canadians and accused them of espionage, and it has sentenced two other Canadians to death on drug-related accusations.

At Meng’s hearing, defense lawyers presented documents that previewed some of the arguments they plan to make as the extradition case wends its way through the legal system. Extradition will be difficult for Meng to fend off.

But her lawyers said the authorities breached Meng’s rights under Canada’s Constitution when they stopped her in transit, seizing her electronic devices, detaining her for three hours before she was arrested and denying her immediate access to a lawyer.

They also made clear that they would use President Donald Trump’s comments about Meng’s arrest to argue that the case was politically motivated.

Shortly after Meng’s arrest, Trump said he might consider interceding in the case if that helped him reach a trade deal with China. Scott Fenton, one of her lawyers, said these statements were “intimidating and corrosive of the rule of law” and should disqualify the United States from being able to extradite Meng.

Meng’s lawyers also plan to argue that the accusation that she breached US sanctions against Iran does not constitute a crime in Canada.

©2019 New York Times News Service