TEHRAN, Jan 22 - The United States has told Canada that it will proceed with a formal request to extradite a top executive of Chinese telecom giant Huawei over allegations of violating US sanctions against Iran.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) - Canadian Ambassador to the US David MacNaughton said in an interview with Canada’s leading daily The Globe and Mail published on Monday that Washington had informed the Canadian government that it would officially seek the extradition of Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou, who has been detained in Canada on US-filed charges.
Ambassador MacNaughton did not mention when the formal extradition request would be made but said the deadline for filing it was January 30.
Meng, 46, who is also the deputy chairwoman of the board of Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, was arrested during a stopover at Vancouver airport on a US extradition request on December 1, 2018.
Canadian authorities said they had nabbed Meng over US charges of alleged sanctions-breaking business dealings with Iran, without making public the details of the charges.
That arrest sparked a diplomatic dispute between China and Canada.
If extradited to the US, Meng would face charges of conspiracy to defraud multiple financial institutions, with a maximum sentence of 30 years for each charge.
Beijing has already called on Ottawa to immediately release Meng.
Since Meng’s arrest was first reported, two Canadian nationals — former diplomat Michael Kovrig and business consultant Michael Spavor — have been arrested in China over national security issues. A third Canadian national, Robert Lloyd Schellenberg, who had been arrested in 2014, was also recently sentenced to death for drug smuggling.
In the past weeks, Some Western countries have been trying to portray Huawei as a proxy for China’s intelligence service.
But others, including some major European firms, have disputed that description.
Source: Press TV
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