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Canadian Official Says US Never Asked For Meng Wanzhou’s Electronic Passwords, But He Took Them ‘Without Thinking’
A Canadian police officer involved in the arrest of Huawei Technologies executive Meng Wanzhou has testified that US authorities never asked for his electronic device passwords, but still received them from a border officer on the day of Meng’s arrest. . The privacy laws of Canada, the Supreme Court of British Columbia has heard before. Meng’s lawyers described the move as part of an undercover evidence-gathering exercise, conducted on behalf of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, as they seek to have Meng’s extradition overturned on the grounds that his rights. She was detained at the Vancouver airport on December 1, 2018, at the request of the United States, which accused her of defrauding HSBC by lying about Huawei’s business in Iran, putting the bank at risk of violating sanctions. from the United States there. Meng denies the charges. Get the latest insights and analysis from our Global Impact newsletter on the great stories originating in China. Canadian Mounted Police Officer Gurvinder Dhaliwal, who testified in the extradition case on Monday, said that the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) attempted to rectify the error more than a week after Meng’s arrest, when he asked for the passwords to be returned. Canadian MPs are joining the campaign to free Meng Wanzhou, citing Sinophobia, but it was too late, they had already appeared before the BC judicial system, Dhaliwal told Canadian government attorney John Gibb-Carsley, who represents the interests of the United States in the case. Goodman called him on the phone and “indicated to me that these codes had been given to us by mistake.” “She was asking if they could get them back, but I told her no, I still couldn’t get them back,” recalls Dhaliwal. But he denied using the passwords to access Meng’s devices, which were seized during the CBSA examination prior to Meng’s arrest at the Vancouver airport. He also did not pass them on to the US police, Dhaliwal said. The devices included an iPhone, a Huawei phone, an iPad, an Apple laptop, and a memory card. Upon receiving the passwords from the CBSA, Dhaliwal is a key figure in Meng’s legal team’s argument that there was a deliberate attempt to use the pre-arrest border screening to assist in the US fraud case against Meng. Dhaliwal said that after Meng’s arrest, CBSA officer Scott Kirkland gave him a piece of paper containing Meng’s passwords, along with Meng’s devices. Dhaliwal said that he “absolutely did not” ask for the passwords, although he did not say anything in objection at the time. “I didn’t even think about it. I just put them on the phones, ”he said. He said he assumed the note and devices would eventually be returned to Meng. Kirkland has testified that he obtained the passwords as part of Meng’s immigration test, but that it was a “heartbreaking” mistake to give them to the RCMP. The Canadian border agent “falsified the account of the interrogation,” says Meng’s attorney. Dhaliwal said on Monday that after the arrest, Meng’s file was transferred to the RCMP’s financial integrity unit due to the complexity of the case. Ben Chang, a unit staff sergeant who has since retired, sent Dhaliwal an email saying that the FBI had requested information about Meng’s devices. [FBI] Legat John Sgroi, ”Chang wrote to Dhaliwal on December 4, three days after the arrest. “They are requesting the descriptions and lists of the devices (with ESN, make model) that we seized from MENG.” ESN refers to the electronic serial number. Chang says in an affidavit that he “believes” the FBI requested “identifying information on the seized electronic devices from Ms. Meng.” But he also said in the affidavit that “[as] I was never asked for identification information by [any] member of the FBI, or any other member of any other authority in the United States, this information was never shared. ” Now he refuses to testify about the apparent contradiction. Chang moved to the Macau Chinese gaming center after retiring from the RCMP in 2019; The Canadian Department of Justice cited “witness safety” when it tried to prevent Meng’s lawyers from seeing notes about an interview with him. In questioning, Meng’s attorney, Scott Fenton, focused on Dhaliwal not taking notes on discussions of the various alternative ways Meng could have been arrested, such as on the runway or on the plane, instead of after the hour-long immigration exam. “Didn’t it occur to you, while planning this high-profile address, that it might be a good note-taking idea?” Fenton asked. “There were discussions,” Dhaliwal replied. Dhaliwal said he believed that Meng’s arrest warrant had been carried out “immediately”. But he told Fenton that he had not read the arrest warrant before Meng was taken into custody. Although he said it would have only taken him “two seconds” to do so, he believed that this task fell to his partner, Sheriff Winston. Yes, as chief officer, who would go. Deputy Judge Heather Holmes adjourned the hearing until Tuesday morning. Extradition hearings are expected to last until next year, and appeals could drag out the process for years to come. Meng lives under partial house arrest in one of the two houses he owns in Vancouver, which has enraged China. Shortly after their arrest, Beijing arrested Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor and charged them with espionage. Ottawa sees the arrests as retaliation and that both men are victims of hostage-taking. More from South China Morning Post: * Canada feared for the safety of a Macau-based witness refusing to testify in Meng Wanzhou’s extradition case * A retired Canadian police officer refuses to This article, Canadian officer says that the United States never asked for Meng Wanzhou’s electronic passwords, but took them ‘without thinking’ first appeared on the South China Morning Post For the latest news from the South China Morning Post, download our mobile app. Copyright 2020.
