Canadian justice lawyer: US didn't mislead in Huawei arrest

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — There is no evidence to support defense allegations the U.S. acted in bad faith or omitted evidence in an attempt to mislead an extradition hearing for a top executive at Chinese communications giant Huawei Technologies, a Canadian government lawyer said Thursday.

The argument came in a hearing for Meng Wanzhou, who is Huawei's chief financial officer as well as the daughter of the company’s founder, was arrested by Canadian authorities at Vancouver’s airport in late 2018. The U.S. wants her extradited to face fraud charges.

The arrest infuriated Beijing, which sees her case as a political move designed to prevent China’s rise.

Over the next few weeks, Justice Heather Holmes will hear final arguments on whether Meng should be extradited to face trial in the United States.

The U.S. accuses Huawei of using a Hong Kong shell company called Skycom to sell equipment to Iran in violation of U.S. sanctions. It says Meng, 49, committed fraud by misleading the HSBC bank about the company’s business dealings in Iran.

Defense lawyer Mona Duckett told the court this week that the extradition request should be denied after arguing that the United States “strategically crafted” a misleading record of the case and acted “in bad faith” when presenting reasons for her extradition. The U.S. omitted facts, obscured the law and inaccurately summarized documents, she said.

“These are serious allegations,” Canadian Justice Department lawyer Monika Rahman said. “Such allegations require cogent evidence to be proven, evidence of a quality that is not before this court.”

Rahman said the U.S. has acted honorably, fairly and reasonably throughout the proceedings She added that the U.S. has a “very high” standard and “discretion” on what evidence to put forth...