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HONG KONG, Oct.30 (SCMP): A Canadian border officer who questioned Meng Wanzhou hours before his arrest at the Vancouver airport testified that he knew the case would end in court, when he suggested to the police that they should take custody immediate. her, concerned that a delay in allowing questioning could be seen as a violation of her rights.
But another border officer argued in the meeting with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) that there was no rush to deliver Meng, Scott Kirkland said, and that the matter did not receive further scrutiny as they rushed to prepare for his arrival in a flight from Hong Kong, about an hour later, on December 1, 2018.
Kirkland, who testified Thursday in Meng’s extradition proceedings at the British Columbia Supreme Court in Vancouver, was subjected to intense cross-examination by Huawei’s executive attorney, Mona Duckett, who tried to bolster the argument that the Meng’s rights were effectively violated and that their deal was part of an undercover plot to gather evidence for US authorities in their fraud case against Meng.
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Meng’s attorneys said that officers from the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and the RCMP were operating under the direction of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation on the day of his arrival. Instead of arresting Meng “immediately”, as her arrest warrant stated, an RCMP officer waited three hours after she got off a Hong Kong flight, allowing Kirkland and her colleague Sowsmith Katragadda to question her and They will seize your electronic devices and passwords.
Her lawyers said that because Meng was not told that she was about to be arrested and was not given the opportunity to have an attorney present, this violated her rights under the Canadian Charter. As a result, the U.S. offer to extradite her to face fraud charges in New York should be scrapped, they said.
Kirkland said he maintained these concerns in the pre-arrest meeting with police at the Vancouver airport.
“I knew it would end up in court, yes,” Kirkland said.
But he called it a “Catch-22”: If the CBSA had immediately turned Meng over to the RCMP, then the border agency would be similarly charged with failing to do its duty.
Kirkland had testified Wednesday that the RCMP played no role in how Meng was treated at the border examination. He also didn’t have any contact with foreign law enforcement officials about Meng, he said.
“We made it explicit [the RCMP] they weren’t going to be involved, “Kirkland said Wednesday.
After Meng’s Cathay Pacific flight landed at 11.10 a.m., Katragadda intercepted her at the Gate 65 gangway, and the border examination was conducted with both officers.
Canada border officer slaps Meng Wanzhou claim of undercover plot
Kirkland said Wednesday that the questions Meng were asked were exclusively aimed at determining his admissibility to Canada, as was the seizure of his electronic devices and passwords. He said he had national security concerns about Meng.
In cross-examination Thursday, Kirkland agreed that Meng had entered Canada 52 times from 2001 to October 2018. On no previous occasion had his admission been questioned, he agreed.
“But your concern on this date [December 1, 2018] it was espionage, “said Duckett, which Kirkland said was” absolutely correct. “
However, he agreed that the review ultimately gathered “not an iota” of evidence to support his national security concerns.
Duckett suggested that the phones were only confiscated because the FBI wanted them. “I don’t know if the FBI wanted those phones or not,” Kirkland said, though it was his understanding that Meng’s devices and other luggage would go to the RCMP after she was arrested.
Duckett asked why, if Meng was undergoing a normal border examination, the nature of the medication she had with her had not been established, nor was the contents of the boxes containing household items examined.
Kirkland expressed his frustration when Duckett again suggested that the exam was primarily concerned with confiscating Meng’s phones for the FBI. He interrupted an objection by a crown attorney representing the interests of the United States in the case.
“Let’s make this very clear … All assets in Ms. Meng’s possession, whether it be electronics, clothing or furniture, were all going to be transferred to the RCMP,” Kirkland said.
He added: “If the RCMP is going to hand them over to the FBI … I have no idea.”
Kirkland is the second witness in the extradition proceedings being heard by Associate Chief Judge Heather Holmes, after RCMP Sheriff Winston Yep, who arrested Meng.
In a separate development, two sentences by Holmes were released Thursday that are related to the extradition case.
Holmes rejected a request by the attorney general of Canada, acting on behalf of US interests in the case, to dismiss the so-called third leg of Meng’s arguments against the extradition offer. That argument says that Meng suffered an abuse of process, alleging “that the requesting state deliberately misstated or omitted material evidence in the case file.”
Holmes refused to summarily dismiss the argument and will allow it to continue. The argument is based on claims that the United States was deliberately misleading in its Record of Case (ROC) filed with the court.
Chief Officer Had No ‘Security Concerns’ About Meng Wanzhou’s Arrest
In the other request, Meng had sought to add seven pieces of evidence to the extradition case, which the attorney general objected to. Holmes agreed to admit some of that evidence, including parts of a crucial PowerPoint presentation made by Meng to an HSBC executive, but no others.
Meng is accused by the United States of defrauding HSBC by lying about Huawei’s business in Iran during the presentation, putting the bank at risk of violating US sanctions. She denies it.
Both requests were related, as the case file was contested for giving an incomplete account of the PowerPoint presentation.
“The omission realistically establishes that the ROC summary is unreliable as a representation of Ms. Meng’s statements to HSBC,” Holmes ruled, admitting some parts of the presentation but not others.
“Limited portions” of the other evidence were admissible, Holmes wrote.
Meng, 48, is the chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies and daughter of founder Ren Zhengfei.
Their deal has enraged Beijing, sending China’s relations with Canada and the United States into a downward spiral.
Beijing subsequently arrested Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, accusing them of espionage. In Canada, his situation is considered hostage-taking.
Meng is under partial house arrest in Vancouver, and lives in one of his two houses in the city. His extradition process is scheduled to last until next year, but appeals could drag out the process for much longer.
The hearing was postponed until Friday morning. – South China Morning Post
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