Huawei CEO arrested for fraud in Canada has reached an agreement with US prosecutors and is free to return to China

A Canadian judge ended extradition proceedings against Huawei CEO Meng Wanzhou on Friday, He ordered that the conditions for his release on bail be raised She was released and concluded nearly three years of a legal saga.

British Columbia Deputy Chief Justice Heather Holmes’ decision comes after Meng reached a deferred prosecution agreement with US attorneys general to avoid criminal fraud charges.

I signed the release order.Holmes said at the end of a brief hearing during which Canadian government lawyers on behalf of the United States requested a suspension of the proceedings and the cancellation of the terms of the bond.

The chief financial officer of Chinese telecom giant Huawei has reached an agreement with prosecutors to resolve the US charges that led to her detention in Canada for nearly three years.The US Department of Justice said on Friday.

Meng was arrested in Vancouver, Canada, in December 2019 By order of a US court He accused it of defrauding HSBC and other banks by misrepresenting links between Huawei and Skycom, The subsidiary company that sold telecommunication equipment to Iran.

Status added to The deepening of the division between Beijing and Washington and the fall of Canada in the middle.

The The Wall Street Journal I was expecting it Meng will plead guilty to fewer charges, while major allegations of fraud related to sales to Iran by a Huawei subsidiary will be dropped.

The agreement would allow Meng to return to China without facing a prison sentence in the United States..

Meng, a senior Huawei executive and daughter of company founder Ren Zhengfei, It was on the Skycom board.

She was accused of concealing the company’s financial transactions through the US financial systemViolating and lying about US sanctions on Iran to FBI investigators.

United State, which campaigned against Huawei for selling phones that would allow the Chinese government to spy on Americans, I pressured Canada to arrest her.

Meng was placed under house arrest in Canada after her detention while the US Department of Justice lobbied for her extradition. He faced a possible 30-year prison sentence on the charges, which China described as “entirely political”.

Days after his arrest, China arrested two Canadians, businessman Michael Spavor and former diplomat Michael Kovrig, accusing them of espionage.. Both were tried in March, and in August Spavor was sentenced to 11 years in prison. No decision has been made public in the Kovrig case.

Western countries have accused China of “hostage diplomacy” to arrest and charge Canadians. Relations between Beijing and Ottawa came to an end over the case and that of the two Canadians detained in China.

Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau denounced Spavor’s ruling as “unacceptable and unfair” and said the charges were “fabricated”.

last Saturday, The Globe and Mail He noted that the US authorities had resumed talks with Huawei for the Chinese company to plead guilty to bank fraud in exchange for deferring a prosecution agreement against the Chinese telecom giant that would allow Meng to return to China.

(with information from the AFP and EFE)

Read on: