Canada asks court docket to toss out qualified affidavit in Huawei CFO’s U.S. extradition scenario

TORONTO (Reuters) – Canadian prosecutors will talk to a courtroom to disregard a former U.S. government lawyer’s affidavit submitted by Huawei Main Economical Officer Meng Wanzhou’s lawful staff in her U.S. extradition scenario, arguing it is “irrelevant” and “unnecessary,” documents introduced on Wednesday showed.

The affidavit was submitted in July in which Michael Gottlieb, who was a White Property law firm underneath President Barack Obama, testified that U.S. President Donald Trump experienced departed from longstanding legal policies designed to endorse the “impartial administration of justice,” with his opinions that he was prepared to use Meng as a bargaining chip in trade talks with China.

Meng’s legal professionals have argued that the extradition should be thrown out in part since the circumstance versus her in the United States is tainted by political interference, pointing to comments from Trump about her extradition.

She was arrested in December 2018 on a warrant from the United States. She is going through costs of financial institution fraud for allegedly deceptive HSBC about Huawei Technologies Co Ltd’s company dealings in Iran, producing the bank to break U.S. sanctions.

Meng, 48, has reported she is harmless and is preventing the extradition while below residence arrest in Vancouver.

In a submission dated Nov. 3, prosecutors asserted that Gottlieb’s proof really should be struck from the report arguing that it is “inadmissible specialist view evidence” that is “irrelevant” and “unnecessary” to Meng’s case.

“The key factual issues arising from (Meng’s) allegations are whether or not specific statements by international officers have … prejudiced the integrity of the Canadian justice procedure,” prosecutors wrote.

Gottlieb’s testimony would question the court docket to “determine not only no matter whether overseas officers have complied with foreign legal principles” but also “review their conduct in light-weight of internal governmental insurance policies and norms.

“This Court lacks the skills to have interaction in such an inquiry,” prosecutors wrote.

The prosecutors are set make the request in the British Columbia Supreme Court docket on Monday, when witness testimony in the case resumes.

Gottlieb is a spouse at Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP in Washington.

Huawei officials were not offered for an instant comment.

Prosecutors have accused Meng’s lawyers of striving to litigate the scenario versus her in the United States in the Canadian court, which Meng’s attorneys have denied.

The extradition case is scheduled to wrap up in April 2021, despite the fact that the opportunity for appeals on possibly facet usually means the case could drag on for decades.