By Moira Warburton
VANCOUVER (Reuters) – A Canadian judge has rejected Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou’s request to add more evidence in her U.S. extradition case, according to a ruling released on Monday.
Meng, 49, was arrested at Vancouver International Airport in December 2018 on a warrant from the United States, which alleges that she misled HSBC about Huawei’s business dealings in Iran, causing the bank to break U.S. sanctions.
She has said she is innocent and has been held on house arrest in Vancouver since then, where she has been fighting the extradition for two years.
Meng’s legal team wanted to include an affidavit from a Huawei accountant as evidence, which they argued would shed light on the company’s financial practices and help prove Meng’s innocence as she fights extradition from Canada on charges of bank fraud in the United States.
Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes of the British Columbia Supreme Court rejected the affidavit, the third such request made by Meng’s legal team, stating that the evidence “is not relevant” to the extradition hearing.
Much of the team’s other requests were similarly rejected.
Meng is currently in court for hearings this week. Her case is set to wrap up in May.
(Reporting by Moira Warburton in Vancouver; Editing by Chris Reese and Jonathan Oatis)
