The lawyer says it was okay to limit the Huawei exec screen

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – The Canadian Border Services Agency was not involved in a conspiracy involving the FBI or the Royal Canadian Mounted Police when they arrested the senior executive of Chinese communications giant Huawei Technologies, a Canadian Justice Ministry lawyer said at an extradition hearing Wednesday.

On December 1, 2018, Canada arrested Meng Wanzhou, Huawei’s chief financial officer, who is also the daughter of the company’s founder, at Vancouver airport, at the Vancouver airport, at the request of the United States, who wants her extradited on fraud charges. . The arrest has angered Beijing, which sees its case as a political move designed to prevent China’s rise.

The United States accuses Huawei of using a Hong Kong company called Skycom to sell equipment to Iran in violation of U.S. sanctions. He says Meng committed the fraud by deceiving HSBC regarding the company’s business in Iran.

Meng’s lawyers argue that her extraction should be stopped because border officials detained and interrogated her without a lawyer, asked questions used by U.S. authorities, confiscated her electronic devices and put them in special bags to prevent erasure and forced her to give up sooner. codes her official arrest.

The defense also alleges that border officers acted as a representative of the RCMP.

Justice Department lawyer Diba Majzub said that the Canadian Border Services Agency acted within its jurisdiction when intercepting Meng at the airport.

“The FBI did not speak to the CBSA,” Mayzub told Assistant Chief Justice Heather Holmes. “It was a CBSA decision.”

The RCMP has realized that the CBSA has priority and is happy with the wait before Meng’s arrest, Majzub said.

“The RCMP did not ask the CBSA to conduct an investigation,” he said. “The RCMP did not suggest testing lines or request that the electronics be tested. It is impossible to describe the vile motive for RCMP. . . when they did not ask for anything from the process. “

Majzub said the CBSA did not tell Meng that she was facing an arrest warrant “is not evidence of abuse of process”, and the three-hour delay before the RCMP arrested her “was not unreasonable”.

Meng attended the hearing wearing an electronic monitoring device on her ankle. She followed the procedure through an interpreter.

Meng’s lawyers will return to court next week and claim that the United States is exceeding the limits of its jurisdiction by prosecuting a foreign national for actions that took place in Hong Kong, and that the United States seduced Canada because of the force of its case. The extradition case could take years.

Shortly after Meng’s arrest, China apparently arrested Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig in retaliation and accused them of spying. Both remained in custody, with limited access to visits by Canadian consular officials.

The two appeared in closed courts last week. Canadian consular officers were barred from attending the proceedings and no verdicts were announced.

Meng remains at large on bail in Vancouver and lives in a villa.