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No person had ‘fairer hearing,’ government lawyer tells Meng Wanzhou extradition case

Lawyers for Huawei chief financial officer arguing to toss out the case over claimed abuses
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Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of Huawei, arrives at B.C. Supreme Court to attend her extradition hearing, in Vancouver, B.C., Monday, Aug. 9, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

A lawyer for Canada’s attorney general told the British Columbia Supreme Court that there was no misconduct in the extradition case of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou that would justify a stay of proceedings.

Robert Frater told the court there is no need for contrition from either the United States or Canadian border officials over the handling of the case, and no person has enjoyed a fairer hearing than Meng.

Lawyers for the chief financial officer have argued that tossing out the case is the only appropriate remedy for the list of abuses they claim she has suffered since her arrest in Vancouver in 2018, including alleged political interference by then-U.S. president Donald Trump.

Frater told the court that while Trump’s words put a shroud over the proceedings, her lawyers failed to establish a link between comments from either the former president or any U.S. officials and her trial.

Meng is wanted in the United States on bank fraud charges that both she and Huawei deny.

Her arrest has produced a caustic relationship between China and Canada and today a Chinese court rejected an appeal by Canadian Robert Schellenberg, whose 15-year person term for drug smuggling was increased to a death sentence a month after Meng’s arrest.

—The Canadian Press

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