February 28, 2020
The United States has charged that China’s Huawei Technologies had people and technology in Iran that helped the Islamic Republic surveil dissidents and put down the anti-government protests of 2009.
On February 13, the US announced that a new indictment of Huawei has been issued, adding to the charges leveled against the firm in January of last year.
The updated indictment says that Huawei effectively operates a subsidiary in Iran, Skycom Tech Co. Ltd., to evade US sanctions. Huawei has told the US that Skycom is not a subsidiary, but an Iranian firm with which it does business.
The indictment, however, says that Huawei actively conducts business with both Iran and North Korea and tries to hide its involvement from the United States. The indictment says Huawei tried to hide its involvement in part by referring to Iran in company documents as A2 and North Korea as A9.
The indictment states: “Huawei’s business in Iran did violate laws and regulations, including sanction-related requirements, and included the provision of goods and services to the Iranian government, including surveillance technology used to monitor, identify and detain protesters during the anti-government demonstrations in Tehran, Iran, in or about 2009.”
The indictment doesn’t say anything about Huawei’s role in pursuing dissidents in Iran since 2009. That may be because the charges involving Iran were just a small part of the revised indictment. Most of the focus was on charges that Huawei was stealing technology from a half-dozen American firms.
Huawei called the charges “without merit” in a statement issued after the indictment was unveiled.
