Huawei Technologies Co Ltd (華為) chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou (孟晚舟) could make “strong arguments” against extradition to the US, in part due to US President Donald Trump’s politicization of the case, Canadian Ambassador to China John McCallum said.
The comments to Chinese-language media, which were broadcast on Wednesday, are the most explicit sign yet from a Canadian official that Meng might not be sent to the US.
In a clip shown by Canadian Broadcasting Corp, McCallum said that Meng had “quite good arguments on her side,” the first of which was “political involvement by comments from Donald Trump in her case.”
Photo: Reuters
Extradition “would not be a happy outcome,” McCallum added.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sidestepped questions about the matter, telling reporters in Saskatchewan that under the law, Meng would have a chance to mount a strong defense.
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying (華春瑩) said that China has always held that this is “not a normal judicial issue. It’s a serious political issue.”
Canada has not applied the same sanctions against Iran as the US, McCallum said.
“Canada does not sign onto these Iran sanctions, so I think she [Meng] has some strong arguments she can make before a judge,” he said.
Former Canadian ambassador to China David Mulroney tweeted that McCallum’s comments were “almost impossible to understand.”
The US Department of Justice has until Wednesday next week to file a formal extradition request and Canadian officials could then take up to a month to decide whether an extradition hearing is warranted.
McCallum said he saw three possible options for resolving the case: One would be Meng’s extradition, which he said “would not be a happy outcome and that would take years.”
The second would be for the US to make a deal with China to drop the request.
The third would be Meng’s release by a Canadian court on the grounds that the US request was not warranted.
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