Chief financial officer of China's Huawei arrested in Canada
Ottawa, Dec 6 : The chief financial officer of China's global telecommunications giant Huawei has been arrested in Canada and faces extradition to the United States, officials said Friday, triggering a strong protest by Beijing, which called for her immediate release.
Meng Wanzhou's detention comes after American authorities reportedly launched an investigation into suspected Iran sanctions by Huawei, which was already under scrutiny by US intelligence officials, who deemed the company a national security threat.
Meng "was arrested in Vancouver on December 1," a statement by Canada's ministry of justice said.
"She is sought for extradition by the United States, and a bail hearing has been set for Friday." The ministry added it could not provide further details due to a publication ban that was sought by Meng, who is the daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, a former Chinese People's Liberation Army engineer.
The Wall Street Journal reported in April that US Department of Justice had opened an investigation into suspected violations of Iran sanctions by Huawei.
The New York Times meanwhile said that the company had been subpoenaed by the Commerce and Treasury Departments over alleged violations of Iran and North Korea sanctions.
China's embassy in Ottawa issued a swift reaction to the news, calling for Meng's release.
"The Chinese side firmly opposes and strongly protests over such kind of actions which seriously harmed the human rights of the victim," the diplomatic mission said in a statement.
"The Chinese side has lodged stern representations with the US and Canadian side, and urged them to immediately correct the wrongdoing and restore the personal freedom of Ms Meng Wanzhou." Huawei added it was unaware of any wrongdoing and was in compliance with all applicable laws.
"The company has been provided very little information regarding the charges and is not aware of any wrongdoing by Ms Meng (Wanzhou)," it said.
Huawei is one of the world's largest telecommunications equipment and services providers.
But despite global success, its US business has been tightly constrained by worries it could undermine American competitors and that its cellphones and networking equipment, used widely in other countries, could provide Beijing with avenues for espionage.
Over the summer, Australia also barred Huawei from providing 5G technology for wireless networks in the country over espionage fears. New Zealand followed suit in November, but said the issue was a technological one.
In June, Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper reported that US lawmakers warned the Canadian government that Huawei posed a major cybersecurity risk.
Despite being essentially barred from the critical US market, Huawei surpassed Apple to become the world's number two smartphone maker in the second quarter of this year and has market leader Samsung in its sights.
Meng's arrest comes as Ottawa and Beijing have been engaged in exploratory talks on a free trade agreement for the past two years, which would be the first deal of its kind between China and a western country.
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After poll debacle, defeated MVA candidates to seek verification of EVM-VVPAT units
Mumbai(PTI): The Maha Vikas Aghadi candidates who faced defeat in the recent Maharashtra assembly polls have decided to seek verification of the EVM-Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trails (VVPATs) units in their segments, a leader of the opposition alliance said.
Many losing candidates of the opposition Shiv Sena (UBT) pointed fingers at the functioning of the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) during their interaction with party head Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday.
Thackeray took stock of the lacklustre performance of his party at a meeting held at his residence in Mumbai.
The poll verdict last week saw the Mahayuti coalition, comprising the Shiv Sena, BJP, and NCP, retaining power with a massive mandate, pushing the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) to margins.
The Mahayuti won 230 seats and MVA only 46 in the 288-member House.
The Thackeray-led Sena (UBT) emerged as the largest party in the opposition camp by winning 20 seats, followed by Congress which bagged 16 constituencies, while the NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) sits at the bottom with a tally of 10 seats.
Talking to PTI on Tuesday, Congress leader Arif Naseem Khan, who lost the election from Chandivali assembly constituency in Mumbai, said he held a discussion with Thackeray, who also said he has got complaints from his party workers that EVMs could have been tampered.
"We are getting complaints from different parts of the state expressing doubts over the results. In a democracy, complaints need to be verified and many of us, including myself, (who faced defeat) are in the process of applying for the verification," Khan said.
As per the Supreme Court's judgement on April 26 this year, the burnt memory/microcontroller in 5 per cent of the EVMs - the control unit, ballot unit and the VVPAT - per assembly constituency shall be checked and verified by a team of engineers from manufacturers of the EVMs, after the announcement of results, for any tampering or modification, he said.
A written request for this has to be made by candidates who are in the second or third position behind the highest polled candidate.
Such a request has to be made within seven days of declaration of the result, Khan said.
A candidate making the request will have to pay the expenses of Rs 41,000 which will be refunded in case the machine is found to be tampered with, he said.
The microcontroller is a one-time programmable chip embedded into the three units of EVM-Ballot Unit, Control Unit and the VVPAT - at the time of manufacturing, as per the SC.
A Sena (UBT) MLA from Mumbai has claimed there were discrepancies between the votes polled and the votes counted in the EVMs.
"Almost all candidates raised doubts over the EVMs," the legislator said.
