OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland will hold a news conference to discuss extradition procedures on Wednesday, a day after U.S. President Donald Trump said he might intervene in the extradition case of Huawei Technologies’ executive Meng Wanzhou.
Meng, chief financial officer of China’s Huawei Technologies Co Ltd [HWT.UL], is fighting an extradition request from the United States here and faces U.S. claims she misled multinational banks about Iran-linked transactions, putting the banks at risk of violating U.S. sanctions.
Meng was released on bail by a Canadian court on Tuesday after being arrested Dec. 1 at the request of the United States.
Government officials will hold a technical briefing later on Wednesday on Canadian extradition procedures, an official in Freeland’s office said. That will be followed by Freeland’s news conference at 4:15 p.m. ET (2115 GMT).
If a Canadian judge rules in favor of the U.S. extradition request, Canada’s justice minister must next decide whether to extradite Meng to the United States.
Trump told Reuters on Tuesday he would intervene here in the Justice Department’s case against Meng if it would serve national security interests or help close a trade deal with China.
Trump’s comments caused some to question whether he might be misusing the extradition request.
“This is a legal issue and one that appears properly executed but your comments can only diminish an important extradition agreement we have with our next door neighbor,” said Bruce Heyman, an ex-U.S. ambassador to Canada who was appointed by President Barack Obama, Trump’s predecessor.
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