Seeking bail, Huawei CFO offers to pay for her own guards

The Canadian bail proceedings for Huawei Technologies chief financial officer Sabrina Meng Wanzhou resumed in British Columbia’s Supreme Court on Monday, with her defence team proposing the use of a private security detail to prevent her from fleeing, pending an extradition hearing.

The US seeks her extradition to face multiple fraud charges relating to alleged breaches of US and EU sanctions against Iran, each carrying a maximum sentence of 30 years.

Meng would pay for private security guards to monitor her 24 hours a day and seize her if she tried to escape, her defence told the judge in the bail hearing, which was adjourned on Monday without a decision.

Meng owns two homes in Vancouver with her husband Liu Xiaozong, once lived in Vancouver herself and has been a regular traveller to the city, her lawyer, David Martin, told Justice William Ehrcke.

Representing the attorney general of Canada, on behalf of the United States, John Gibb-Carsley has argued that Meng has access to vast resources and poses an unacceptable flight risk.

She is being held at the Alouette Correctional Centre for Women, in nearby Maple Ridge.

The daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, Meng, 46, was arrested at Washington’s request at Vancouver International Airport on December 1 as she changed planes on a flight from Hong Kong to Mexico.

Her bail hearing began last week, and drew a packed house of reporters from news outlets around the world on Friday, but was continued to Monday.

he case has infuriated Beijing, which summoned the ambassadors of the United States and Canada this weekend to demand Meng’s immediate release. The arrest has also roiled world financial markets.

On Monday, hundreds of reporters and members of the public lined up outside the high-capacity, high-security Courtroom 20.

https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/2177339/bail-hearings-continue-canada-huawei-cfo-sabrina

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