Canada court finds against Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou on double criminality; extradition trial to continue

In a closely-watched decision today, the Supreme Court of British Columbia published a key decision in the extradition case of Meng Wanzhou, the CFO of Huawei Technologies, China’s largest telecommunications company and a frequent target of U.S.

In its ruling, the court said that the case met the standard for “double criminality,” and thus the extradition hearing will be allowed to continue.

Today’s decision comes from a narrowly focused court hearing in January on a Canadian legal doctrine known as “double criminality,” which states that a subject needs to face criminal charges in both Canada and the receiving country in order for an extradition to be approved.

While courts generally handle all aspects of extradition at once, the judge in this case, associate chief justice Heather Holmes, decided to split Meng’s extradition hearing into phases, given that without double criminality, the case would be automatically closed.

VANCOUVER, BC – JANUARY 20: Huawei Technologies Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou is escorted by her security personnel as she leaves court during a break for lunch on the first day of her extradition trial on January 20, 2020 in Vancouver, Canada.

TSMC, the world’s largest contract semiconductor fab, said that it wasn’t accepting new orders from Huawei in light of the new restrictions.

Indeed, given the continuing situation with the U.S., Huawei itself has said that one of its most important missions is to build its equipment using entirely domestic Chinese components, veering around U.S

While the Meng case is just the latest salvo in the on-going battle here, expect more skirmishes ahead