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孟晚舟引渡案: 2018年12月1日被拘捕；2019年3月1日，加正式启动引渡程序；BC最高法院引渡听证2021年8月18日结束，法官未作出裁决；9月24日孟晚舟与美国政府达成协议，美国撤销引渡请求，BC法院终止引渡程序; 2022年12月1日美国撤销指控
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U.S. President Donald Trump's comment about his willingness to intervene in the court case against a Huawei executive was part of the Canadian Justice Department's legal analysis of the extradition case against Meng Wanzhou.
The analysis, under the heading 'President Trump's statement to Reuters that he may intervene in the extradition,' is part of a legal synopsis for the Department of Justice obtained by CBC News through an access to information request.
CBC News requested all government legal analyses of available options in the case against Meng, who was arrested by Canadian authorities in Vancouver on December 1 at the request of the United States.
American authorities accuse Meng of bank fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy as part of their larger legal case against telecommunications giant Huawei.
Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou, who is out on bail and remains under partial house arrest after she was detained Dec. 1 at the behest of American authorities, arrives back at her home after a court appearance in Vancouver, on March 6, 2019. (Darryl Dyck/Canadian Press)
In an exclusive interview with Reuters on December 11, Trump was asked if he would be willing to intervene in the case.
"Whatever's good for this country, I would do," he said.
"If I think it's good for what will be certainly the largest trade deal ever made, which is a very important thing, what's good for national security, I would certainly intervene if I thought it was necessary."
That comment infuriated official Ottawa; Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland personally raised her frustration over Trump's statement with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speak to reporters during a news conference at the State Department in Washington last December. (Manuel Balce Ceneta/The Associated Press)
China has tried to pressure the Canadian government to intervene, demanding that Meng be released immediately.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has argued repeatedly that Canada is a rule of law country and that there will be no political interference in the case.
Trudeau fired his ambassador to China, John McCallum, after he twice waded into the legal saga publicly. McCallum argued that Meng has a strong case to fight extradition and pointed to President Trump's comments as evidence.
Of the 123 pages in the document, only six were not fully redacted.
The section on Trump's remark is partly redacted and includes comments by U.S. Assistant Attorney General John Demers, who testified on Capitol Hill the day after the Reuters interview was published.
"Asst. A.G. Demers testified that if Ms. Meng is extradited to the U.S., the criminal case will proceed," the document reads.
"He further testified, 'We [the U.S. Dept. of Justice] follow the facts and we vindicate violations of U.S. law. That's what we're doing when we bring those cases, and I think it's very important for other countries to understand that we are not a tool of trade when we bring the cases.'"
An argument for shutting down Meng's case?
Vancouver-based immigration lawyer Richard Kurland said he is not surprised to see Trump's comments included in the federal analysis, given their shocking nature.
"Presidents don't discuss active extradition cases, period," he told CBC News.
"If President Trump thought it important enough to raise the Canadian extradition case in the context of American-China trade negotiations, saying he may intervene if it assists China, that's telling. And it's been captured now in writing, in a high-level government document.
"The defence counsel may well have the improper purpose-abusive process defence to strike down, shut down, this Huawei extradition case quickly."
The document goes on to outline basic facts about how the extradition process works and when a minister can intervene, and lists some statistics.
Since 2008, it says, Canada has extradited 577 people to the United States and just 100 people to all other countries combined.
According to the analysis, 21 of those extradited were Chinese nationals; nine of those Chinese nationals were sent to the U.S.
"The Minister must refuse extradition if it would be unjust or oppressive or if the request was made for an improper purpose (e.g. on grounds of race, religion, nationality, ethnic origin, political opinion etc.)," the document states.
The document also confirms Canadian ministers have stepped in to stop the extradition of individuals in the past.
"Since 1993 (the earliest date for which we have statistics), the Minister of Justice has discharged persons sought for extradition in 13 cases," the document says.
Although the document does not provide case specifics, it says that "of those 13 cases, 10 were extradition requests from the United States.
"This is the only power under the Act which is expressly exercisable only by the minister."
Two Canadians — former diplomat Michael Kovrig and entrepreneur Michael Spavor — were detained in December by Beijing and remain in custody — actions widely seen as retaliation for Meng's arrest.
Although neither man has been charged, Chinese officials allege both were involved in espionage.
China also recently banned the purchase of canola seed from certain Canadian exporters, claiming the product is tainted.
Ottawa says there is no science to back up that claim and is looking at sending a high-level delegation from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to China to try to resolve the issue.
While there is no direct evidence the canola ban is related to the diplomatic dispute, at least one company involved says it believes it was targeted due to diplomatic tensions.
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If anyone can appreciate the kind of pressure facing the Canadian prosecutors handling Meng Wanzhou's extradition hearing, it's Nick Vamos.
As the former head of extradition with the British Crown Prosecution Service, Vamos has handled many high-profile, international white collar cases in the U.K..
He says political concerns — such as China's obvious displeasure with the Huawei executive's arrest — may swirl in the background. And he has heard comments from politicians like U.S. President Donald Trump — who suggested Meng could be used as a bargaining chip in a trade war — inadvertently hand defendants ammunition in their bids from freedom.
But Vamos — who now works as a London-based defence lawyer — says he's never seen anything as overt as Beijing's apparent attempts to bully Canada into releasing Meng: arresting and isolating two Canadians in China for allegedly spying, sentencing two more to death for drug trafficking and choking off imports of Prairie canola.
"That's a new phenomenon," said Vamos, a partner with Peters and Peters, a leading U.K. law firm with expertise in business crime.
"Or at least not a phenomenon that's been so publicly and obviously displayed in an extradition case."
'I find that profoundly depressing'
Meng's legal team will likely provide a roadmap along with the beginnings of a strategy for extradition proceedings when the Huawei chief financial officer makes her next B.C. Supreme Court appearance on May 8.
The 47-year-old faces the possibility of decades in jail if sent to the U.S. to face criminal charges of conspiracy and fraud in relation to accusations she lied to New York banks as part of a scheme that allegedly saw Huawei violate sanctions against Iran.
Canada has come under intense pressure from China to release Meng. Her supporters have crowded the Vancouver courtroom where Meng's court proceedings take place. (David Ryder/Reuters)
Her lawyers have already raised concerns about what they called the "political character" of the case, along with hints they'll be claiming abuse of process in the way Canada Border Services agents and the RCMP detained and arrested her at the Vancouver airport last December.
Vamos said prosecutors essentially act as a lawyer for the requesting state — the United States in Meng's case. They wouldn't normally be aware of the kind of back channel pressure that accompanies some extradition cases.
"Poor Canada — without wishing to sound patronizing — is being caught in the middle of this, and China are shamelessly using political tactics to intervene in what is supposed to be an open, transparent judicial process," he said.
"And I find that profoundly depressing."
'The boyfriend of a very bad man'
Vancouver-based lawyer Gary Botting has written several books on extradition and constitutional freedoms, including one focused on the law surrounding extradition to the United States.
He believes Meng has a strong case, in part because her treatment could be seen as "unjust or oppressive" given the nature of her job and the way in which she was apprehended.
"The vice-president of an international corporation doing business hither and yon has to know they're going to be safe from being arbitrarily arrested at an airport at the behest of a rival state," he said.
"It's just common sense that shouldn't be allowed to happen."
Botting said Meng has a number of possible grounds to challenge the extradition. Trump's comments will almost certainly be among them, as will the Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees she has already claimed were violated in a separate civil suit.
In 2001, the Supreme Court of Canada upheld a judge's decision not to extradite four men wanted in the U.S. for a $22-million telemarketing scam because of comments U.S. prosecutors made that would have led to a violation of their charter rights.
The Supreme Court of Canada upheld a decision not to extradite four men to the United States after a U.S. assistant attorney suggested one of them might be raped in prison if he didn't waive his extradition rights. (Shutterstock)
The ruling came after an assistant U.S. attorney told CBC's The Fifth Estate one of the accused would "be the boyfriend of a very bad man" if he waited out his extradition hearing and wound up in jail after a trial.
The men argued that they were being threatened with rape in prison, which would have violated the charter right to life, liberty and security of the person — not to mention the right not to be subjected to cruel and unusual punishment.
'Political in nature'
Along those lines, Meng has already claimed in her civil case that the RCMP arranged for CBSA officers to detain her for three hours before she was officially arrested so she could be denied access to a lawyer and her electronic devices could be seized.
She said she was denied her charter rights to know the reason for her arrest, to retain and instruct legal counsel without delay and to be secure against unreasonable search and seizure.
U.S. President Donald Trump's comments about Meng could factor into her defence if she says she is being persecuted for political reasons. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Vamos said Trump's comments won't necessarily play a huge role during the hearing stage.
He said prosecutors will likely ask the judge to look at the record of actions of the U.S. Department of Justice in regards to Meng as opposed to the president's off-the-cuff statements.
The courtroom extradition hearing itself is supposed to be apolitical.
But if a judge commits Meng for extradition, the final decision to surrender belongs to Canada's minister of justice.
And the Supreme Court of Canada, in a precedent-setting case involving a man accused in a mining fraud, has described the minister's role in that part of the extradition decision-making process as "political in nature … at the extreme legislative end of the continuum of administrative decision-making."
'There will come a moment'
Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland acknowledged this reality in an interview in February with CBC's Ottawa Morning.
"Saying you're a rule of law country doesn't mean political decisions don't get taken," Freeland said.
"There will come a moment — as in all extradition cases, where the minister of justice will need to — could need to, depending on how things develop — could need to take a political decision about whether to approve the extradition."
Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland has said that there may come a moment in the Meng case when a political decision is necessary. (Chris Wattie/Reuters)
The Extradition Act says the minister "shall refuse to make a surrender" if it would be "unjust or oppressive having regard to all the relevant circumstances."
The minister must also consider whether or not the prosecution is taking place to punish a person by reason of "race, religion, nationality, ethnic origin, language, colour, political opinion, sex, sexual orientation, age, mental or physical disability or status."
But the law is silent on the types of pressures facing the Canadian government when it comes to Meng and China. Shortly after her arrest, the Chinese government arrested two Canadians, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, who have since been accused of spying. According to Canadian officials, both men have been kept in isolation for months.
A third Canadian, Robert Schellenberg, was sentenced in January to death in China for allegedly trafficking drugs. He was originally given a 15-year sentence, which he appealed. And this week, a Chinese court handed the death sentence to a fourth Canadian, Fan Wei, for his role in an alleged methamphetamine trafficking ring.
The Chinese have denied any relation among the fates of Kovrig, Spavor, Schellenberg and Meng, but the Canadian government has raised concerns about the timing.
Meanwhile, China has choked off Canadian canola shipments, claiming to have found "dangerous pests" in imports of the grain, which account for about $2.7 billion of annual trade between China and Canada.
'Nobody would be weeping'
Vamos sees an interesting parallel between Meng's case and an English case that saw the director of the U.K.'s Serious Fraud Office discontinue an investigation into allegations of bribery in connection with a multibillion-dollar arms sale to Saudi Arabia in 2006 under extreme pressure from the Saudi government.
At the time, Prime Minister Tony Blair defended the decision by saying Britain's "strategic interest" in terms of Middle East counterterrorism had to come first.
That proceeding differs from an extradition case in which Canada has little choice but to act in accordance with its international treaty obligations. But Vamos says the same kind of issues are at play.
"That puts them in this awful position where they have to carry on with the case knowing or suspecting that it might have these terrible consequences for Canadian citizens or the Canadian economy," Vamos said.
"So what do they do about that? Presumably they can talk to the Americans on various channels to say: 'Can you please not put us in this position?' But that gets very complicated because the Americans would look like they're giving in to Chinese pressure."
Vamos said he has discussed the Meng case with Canadian counterparts and has been following it with interest. If nothing else, it's keeping the world of extradition experts entertained.
He won't be drawn into betting on the outcome.
"I say this glibly, but I'm sure nobody would be weeping for too long if somehow she just managed to give her security detail the slip and left Canada on a false passport wearing a fake beard and moustache and appeared in China somewhere," he said.
"I'm not saying that's going to happen. But who knows?"
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/meng-wanzhou-extradition-chinese-huawei-1.5089840
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Huawei Technologies said it will “vigorously oppose” a motion filed by U.S. prosecutors on Thursday to disqualify its lead defense lawyer from a case accusing the Chinese company of bank fraud and sanctions violations.
According to a filing in the U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, New York, the U.S. government sought to remove James Cole from the case.
Cole was the No.2 official at the Justice Department between 2011 and 2015, a period when the United States was obtaining information on how Huawei might have been doing business in Iran in violation of U.S. sanctions.
The filing did not make public why it is seeking to remove Cole from the case. In a letter to the court, prosecutors said they had filed a sealed, classified motion to disqualify Cole and expected to file a public version by May 10.
Cole, the former U.S. deputy attorney general, is now a partner at law firm Sidley Austin in Washington. He declined to comment.
Huawei said in an emailed statement to Reuters that it chose Jim Cole as its lawyer in 2017. “We have seen no facts from the government that would justify disqualifying him and denying Huawei its constitutional rights. Huawei will vigorously oppose the government’s motion,” it said.
The case against Huawei has ratcheted up tensions between Beijing and Washington as the world’s two economic powers try to close a trade deal.
Angering the Chinese, the company’s Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou, daughter of Huawei’s founder Ren Zhengfei, was arrested in Canada in December at the behest of U.S. authorities.
Huawei was charged with bank and wire fraud, violating sanctions against Iran and obstructing justice. Meng, who must answer to some of the charges, has said she is innocent and is fighting extradition. She is due in court in Vancouver on May 8.
Cole entered a not guilty plea on behalf of the company and its U.S. subsidiary on March 14 in Brooklyn.
The crux of the case is that Meng and Huawei allegedly conspired to defraud HSBC Holdings Plc and other banks by misrepresenting Huawei’s relationship with Skycom Tech Co Ltd, a suspected front company that operated in Iran.
Huawei said in an emailed statement to Reuters that it chose Jim Cole as its lawyer in 2017. “We have seen no facts from the government that would justify disqualifying him and denying Huawei its constitutional rights. Huawei will vigorously oppose the government’s motion,” it said.
The case against Huawei has ratcheted up tensions between Beijing and Washington as the world’s two economic powers try to close a trade deal.
Angering the Chinese, the company’s Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou, daughter of Huawei’s founder Ren Zhengfei, was arrested in Canada in December at the behest of U.S. authorities.
Huawei was charged with bank and wire fraud, violating sanctions against Iran and obstructing justice. Meng, who must answer to some of the charges, has said she is innocent and is fighting extradition. She is due in court in Vancouver on May 8.
Cole entered a not guilty plea on behalf of the company and its U.S. subsidiary on March 14 in Brooklyn.
The crux of the case is that Meng and Huawei allegedly conspired to defraud HSBC Holdings Plc and other banks by misrepresenting Huawei’s relationship with Skycom Tech Co Ltd, a suspected front company that operated in Iran.
ottawa_tj
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你这是变相对女性的歧视。。。
她是那家和伊朗交易的华为分公司法人代表，文件都是她签名授权的。。。抓她和她是女性或者是谁的女儿没有必然联系。。。
权力越大，责任越大，当然挣钱也多。。。
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公司之作为，即便是事实，抓一公司高管且为引渡到第三国，不知是否有先例。
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不是公司行为，是谁的CFO？
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美国法律还是比较严谨的，咱贫民百姓能想到的，这些法律文件应该都cover了。
https://globalnews.ca/news/4900085/meng-wanzhou-extradition-request/
