The United States dropped, this Friday (2), all charges against the senior executive of the Chinese multinational Huawei, Meng Wanzhou, detained in Canada under a US arrest warrant, issued on charges related to the circumvention of the sanctions adopted against the Will.

According to the US Department of Justice, under an agreement reached in September 2021, the charges against the daughter of the founder of the Chinese telecommunications giant, who spent three years under house arrest in Vancouver, have been dropped in full and cannot be reviewed.

The case has become a major issue for relations between China, Canada and the United States.

Meng, 50, was Huawei’s chief financial officer when she was arrested on December 1, 2018 during a layover in Vancouver at the request of US authorities.

Accused of “bank fraud”, Meng was accused of having lied to avoid American sanctions against Iran, a crime punishable by more than 30 years in prison in the United States and for which she was threatened with extradition.

A few days after his arrest, China for its part arrested two Canadian citizens, the former diplomat Michael Kovrig and the businessman Michael Spavor, whom it accuses of espionage, a measure experienced as retaliation.

Meng and the two Canadians were recently repatriated, after the agreement sealed between American justice and Meng, in which she admitted having made “false declarations”.

In contrast, the United States suspended the charges against the executive until December 1, 2022, allowing Canada to release her, and agreed to withdraw them later, if the terms of the agreement were respected.

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© Agence France-Presse