Huawei Executive’s Extradition Hearing in Canada Begins

“Canada permits banks to do business with Iran. It is no crime in Canada,” Ms. Meng’s lawyer Eric Gottardi told a packed courtroom on the first day of her extradition hearing in the Supreme Court of British Columbia.

The hearing kicks off what is expected to be a prolonged series of legal battles over the fate of Huawei’s finance chief and daughter of its founder,

Ren Zhengfei.

Canadian courts typically don’t approve extradition requests unless the accused is alleged to have engaged in conduct that is also illegal in Canada.

“Canada is a sovereign nation, we have our own laws,” said Richard Peck, another of Ms. Meng’s lawyers, adding that Canada stopped enforcing sanctions against Iran in 2016.

Ms. Meng, 47 years old, was arrested at Vancouver’s airport in December 2018 at the request of the U.S. It alleges she was part of a Huawei conspiracy to defraud banks by misrepresenting its ties to Skycom Tech, which did business in Iran. The banks cleared hundreds of millions of dollars in transactions that potentially violated U.S. sanctions against Iran.

Lawyers for Canada’s Justice Department have argued in favor of the U.S. extradition request, citing U.S. allegations that she misled some the Chinese company’s banks, including

HSBC,

about its business ties in Iran.

“There is evidence she deceived HSBC in order to induce it to continue providing bank services to Huawei,” the Justice Department said.

The legal arguments were detailed in a high-security courtroom with a wall of bulletproof glass that separated Ms. Meng, lawyers and Justice Heather Holmes from a gallery of 150 journalists, Huawei employees, local Chinese consulate officials and others. Dozens more watched a video of the hearing in a nearby spillover room.

Ms. Meng arrived at the courthouse smiling and waving to onlookers and was escorted by private bodyguards to the courtroom, where she sat at a table with a translator and took notes.

The case against Ms. Meng has made her the global symbol of trade and technology tensions between the U.S. and China. Caught in the crossfire is Canada. Days after Meng’s arrest, China detained two Canadians,

Michael Kovrig

and

Michael Spavor,

who remain in jail.

Canada’s economy has also taken a hit after crops and meat exports to China were banned or thwarted by China, actions that former Canadian diplomats in China and foreign-policy analysts said were retaliatory.

In the initial months following her detention in Vancouver, Ms. Meng kept a low profile, flanked by security guards on rare outings and avoiding media. More recently she has appeared more comfortable in the limelight, drawing attention by shopping and eating at local restaurants.

Ms. Meng said in a public letter posted on Huawei’s website last month that despite moments of “fear, pain, disappointment, helplessness and torment” after her arrest she has learned to accept her Canadian detention. “I’m no longer afraid of the unknown.”

Ms. Meng wrote that she has found comfort by painting and reading. She is also taking lessons to improve her English, a person familiar with her said. Her sons and daughter have visited her several times and her mother has spent most of the past year with her in Vancouver, the person said.

The hearing this week is the first of four sessions scheduled into autumn before Justice Holmes, who will weigh arguments about whether U.S. allegations against Ms. Meng meet Canada’s extradition requirements.

Write to Jacquie McNish at Jacquie.McNish@wsj.com