Huawei and HSBC reached an agreement in a Hong Kong court on Monday over the relevant documents for legal proceedings as Huawei’s CFO Meng Wanzhou fights her extradition case in Canada, the two companies confirmed with the Global Times.
But legal observers said the case still remains uncertain, as it is unknown whether the documents will be taken into account by the Canadian court.
Meng has been fighting an extradition case in Vancouver, Canada since she was detained by the Canadian authorities in December 2018 on behalf of the Trump administration amid the China-US trade war. Meng’s legal team has alleged abuse of judicial process in an effort to end the extradition proceedings.
The abuse claim is based on political motivation, unlawful detention, material omissions and misstatements, and violations of customary international law.
US authorities have provided materials concerning a PowerPoint presentation Meng gave for HSBC in Hong Kong in August 2013, which is widely considered a key document in proving Meng lied about Huawei’s relationship with Skycom – a major part of the US fraud allegations against her.
However, Meng’s lawyers claim that the US deliberately omitted two slides from the PowerPoint, which showed that Meng didn’t mislead the bank. And their application for more internal documents from HSBC aims to elaborate on this point.
After a London court rejected this application, a Hong Kong court approved it, but neither HSBC nor Huawei have shared further details about what the internal documents contain.
“An agreement has been reached with HSBC in relation to the Hong Kong legal proceedings for document production, and an order has been approved by the court,” a Huawei spokesperson told the Global Times.
An HSBC spokesperson also told the Global Times on Monday that the bank has reached an agreement with Huawei and Meng to resolve the legal proceedings in Hong Kong regarding their request for documents, without further elaborating on the details.
The final hearing in the case is expected to be held in mid-May. Observers said it’s up to the court to decide whether the new documents will be taken into account, and whether they can be “key materials” remains unknown.
Meng Wanzhou Photo: CFP
