Agreement between Washington and Huawei for a return to China of its former financial director

The announcement is expected to be the epilogue of a three-year-long legal and diplomatic battle. American justice ratified, Friday, September 24, an agreement sealed between Washington and the Chinese telecommunications company Huawei, which will allow the financial director of the latter to return to China against a “Postponement”, until the end of 2022, proceedings against her, in particular for “Bank fraud”.

A Brooklyn Federal Court judge “Accepted” the agreement between the American Department of Justice and the lawyers of Meng Wanzhou, financial director of Huawei who has been under house arrest in Canada for nearly three years and whom the American justice wanted to judge on its soil.

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A representative of the Department of Justice proposed, in this court in New York, to ” report “ until 1er December 2022 (four years after the arrest of Meng Wanzhou in Canada) the proceedings initiated since the end of 2018 against the CFO, in particular pour “plot” in order to commit a “Bank fraud”. If this agreement is not contested or broken by 1er December, the lawsuits will be dropped, according to the representative.

Brooklyn Federal Court Services earlier today sent a short letter from the Justice Department confirming a 1 p.m. hearing, with a view to a “Settlement of proceedings” in the “United States against Wanzhou Meng” case, without providing further details. Solicited by Agence France-Presse (AFP), the leader’s lawyers refused to comment, as did the US Department of Justice.

An “abusive” trial, according to the defense

Mme Wanzhou, 49, daughter of the founder of Huawei, was arrested on 1er December 2018 at Vancouver airport at the request of Washington, who wants to try her for bank fraud. US justice accuses Huawei number two of lying to an HSBC bank executive during a meeting in Hong Kong in 2013, about the links between the Chinese group and a subsidiary called Skycom which sold equipment to the Iran, thus exposing the banking establishment to sanctions from the United States government.

the Wall Street Journal reported, before the hearing, that the CFO would agree to recognize certain “Faults” in exchange for a “Postponement”, then a “Abandonment” prosecution for bank fraud. However, she has always denied these accusations.

The Chinese government believes, since 2018, that the American administration was above all seeking to weaken Huawei, a cutting-edge Chinese company and world leader in 5G equipment and networks, unmatched by the Americans. For a few weeks now, the lawyers of Mme Meng again argued that the US sued “Abusive” to their client.

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The agreement between Washington and Beijing could also lead to the release of a businessman and a former diplomat, both Canadian, detained in China: Michael Spavor, sentenced to eleven years in prison for espionage, and Michael Kovrig, detained in China. In the columns of World, Henri-Paul Normandin, former Canadian Ambassador and former Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, indeed believed that China would use this “Hostage diplomacy” which she made her specialty.

The World with AFP

www.lemonde.fr

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