New York-Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou has reached a postponed prosecution agreement with the United States that allows him to return to China almost three years after his arrest and detention in Canada, U.S. prosecutors said on September 24. Said in the Brooklyn District Court on the day.
Under the agreement, the government will suspend prosecution until December 2022, and will withdraw the proceedings altogether if the defendants comply with certain terms of the agreement, according to federal prosecutors.
The prosecution said Meng could leave Canada on December 1, next year, adding that the United States would withdraw its request for surrender to Canada as part of the agreement.
Under the contract, Meng was acquitted of charges related to bank fraud and transfer fraud while effectively appearing in Federal Court in Brooklyn.
Meng, chief financial officer of China Telecommunications provider and daughter of the company’s founder, was arrested at Vancouver International Airport in December 2018 at the request of the United States. US prosecutors have accused her of being involved in a plan to use the global banking system to circumvent US sanctions on Iran.
Meng in a black polka-dotted dress looked fine with a smile before attending another remote court hearing in Vancouver that same day.
Meng, 49, is at the center of a trilateral conflict between China, Canada and the United States. China summoned a US ambassador over Meng and warned Canada of “significant consequences” if she was not released.
Immediately after Meng was arrested in 2019, Chinese officials detained two Canadians and accused them of being spies. This move is widely seen as an example of Beijing’s “hostage diplomacy.”
A Chinese court sentenced one Canadian businessman, Michael Spavor, to 11 years in prison last month. Another diplomat, Michael Kovrig, was put on a private trial in March and the verdict was transferred to an unspecified date.
Robert Schellenberg of Canada, who had previously been sentenced to 15 years in drug smuggling by Chinese authorities, was sentenced to death a month after Meng was detained. The court dismissed his appeal on August 10, the day before Spaver’s decision. Men appeared in a court in Vancouver hours after Spaver appeared.
Meng maintains her innocence and surrenders her as part of her bail agreement while she is trapped in her 6-bedroom home, which was being monitored by private security guards 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. I am fighting with.
Huawei, a leading 5G network supplier, was blacklisted in the United States in 2019 due to national security concerns and human rights abuses. Sanctions restricted access to key US technologies and disrupted the company’s smartphone business, resulting in a sharp drop in revenue in the first half of 2021. The embarrassed companies are smart pig farming, mining, car sales, and cosmetics to make up for retail losses.
The judicial hearing of Meng’s delivery case in Vancouver is set for October 21st.
The story will be updated as the case progresses.
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Eva Fu is a New York-based writer of The Epoch Times, focusing on Sino-US relations, religious freedom, and human rights.