Death Threats Against Huawei’s Meng Wanzhou

Disturbing details about the safety of Huawei’s CFO Meng Wanzhou have been aired in a Canadian court room on Wednesday.

Whilst Wanzhou has spent the best part of two years under house arrest in Vancouver whilst she fights extradition to the United States on bank fraud and sanctions busting charges, it is alleged she has received multiple death threats.

The death threats were revealed during testimony by Doug Maynard, chief operating officer of Lions Gate Risk Management, the company providing her security detail, the Guardian newspaper reported.

Death threats

Indeed, one of the death threats included bullets in the mail, Maynard reportedly said.

Meng reportedly received “five or six” threatening letters at her residence in June and July 2020.

The Vancouver police department was involved in examining the evidence of the threats, Maynard testified in the British Columbia supreme court.

The letters were “coming by mail and they were easily identifiable by markings on the outside”, Maynard reportedly said.

According to the Guardian, Lions Gate worked with Meng and her staff to ensure the evidence was not contaminated and opened the letters to confirm they were threats, Maynard said, adding that “sometimes there were bullets inside the envelopes”.

The sender’s identity and possible motivation were not disclosed.

There has been no comment by police in Vancouver police on the matter, and it is not clear what progress their investigation has made.

Bail conditions

Meng and her team are currently seeking to loosen the bail conditions of her confinement at home, that requires her to wear an ankle monitor.

Meng is also seeking to remove the daytime security detail that follows her 24/7.

Meng, 48, was arrested in December 2018 at Vancouver international airport on a warrant from the US, where she is facing charges of bank fraud for allegedly misleading HSBC about Huawei’s business dealings in Iran and potentially causing the bank to break US sanctions.

This bail hearing is set to finish on Wednesday afternoon, but her extradition case is set to finish in May.

That said, the potential for appeals mean the case could drag on for years.