FILE PHOTO: Huawei Technologies Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou leaves her home to attend a court hearing in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada May 27, 2020. REUTERS/Jennifer Gauthier
(Reuters) – Lawyers for Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies, have applied to a Canadian court for stays of the proceedings for her extradition to the United States, documents released on Thursday showed.
In requests partly based on what the lawyers call a destruction of the integrity of the judicial process by U.S. President Donald Trump and senior members of his administration, they cite an intention to use Meng “as a bargaining chip in a trade dispute.”
Meng was arrested in December 2018 at the Vancouver International Airport on a warrant from the United States.
U.S. authorities accuse her of bank fraud for misleading HSBC (HSBA.L) about Huawei’s ties to a company operating in Iran, putting HSBC at risk of fines and penalties for breaking U.S. sanctions on Tehran.
Reporting by Moira Warburton in Toronto; Editing by Clarence Fernandez