Huawei Executive Gets New Bail Term: Staying In A $16 Million Home

A Canadian judge on Wednesday altered the bail terms of a Chinese tech executive facing possible extradition to the United States on fraud charges, granting her lawyers’ request that she be allowed to move from a $6 million, six-bedroom house in Vancouver to a $16 million, seven-bedroom mansion in the city’s exclusive Shaughnessy neighborhood.

Lawyers for the executive, Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of the Chinese tech giant Huawei, requested the change at a hearing before the Supreme Court of British Columbia. The courtroom was filled to capacity, a reflection of the intense interest in the case since Ms. Meng was arrested in December by Canadian officials in Vancouver.

Her arrest put Canada in the center of a diplomatic struggle between China and the United States, which sought her arrest and is seeking her extradition. The United States has since accused Ms. Meng of, among other things, fraudulently deceiving four banks to enable Huawei to evade American sanctions against Iran.

Ms. Meng’s arrest has also created a rift between China and Canada. China has detained — in retaliation, some say — two Canadians and accused them of espionage, and it has sentenced two other Canadians to death on drug-related accusations.

At Ms. Meng’s hearing, defense lawyers presented documents that previewed some of the arguments they plan to make as the extradition case wends its way through the legal system. Extradition, which could take months to resolve, will be difficult for Ms. Meng to fend off.

But her lawyers said the authorities breached Ms. Meng’s rights to due process under Canada’s constitution when they stopped her in transit, seizing her electronic devices, detaining her for three hours before she was arrested, and denying her immediate access to a lawyer.

They also made clear that they would use President Trump’s comments about Ms. Meng’s arrest to argue that the case was politically motivated.

Shortly after Ms. Meng’s arrest, Mr. Trump said he might consider interceding in the case if that helped him reach a trade deal with China. Scott Fenton, one of her lawyers, said these statements were “intimidating and corrosive of the rule of law” and should disqualify the United States from being able to extradite Ms. Meng.―New York Times