[ad_1]
Deal
A police officer overseeing law enforcement at Vancouver airport testified in court on Thursday that he was concerned about a plan by Canadian federal police to arrest Huawei’s CFO Meng Wanzhou on the plane in which it came two years ago.
FILE PHOTO: Huawei Technologies CFO Meng Wanzhou leaves her home to attend a court hearing in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada on November 23, 2020. REUTERS / Jennifer Gauthier / File Photo
VANCOUVER: A police officer overseeing law enforcement at Vancouver airport testified in court Thursday that he was concerned about a Canadian federal police plan to arrest Huawei’s CFO Meng Wanzhou on the plane in the one that arrived two years ago.
Meng’s nearly three-hour questioning by Canadian border agents prior to his arrest in December 2018 by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) on a United States warrant has become a flash point at his hearing from extradition in progress.
His attorneys have alleged that Canadian and US authorities coordinated to use the additional investigative powers of the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) to question Meng without the presence of an attorney and extract identifying details about his electronic devices to pass them on to the US authorities.
They claim that abuses of the process occurred in the run-up to his arrest, which should invalidate the extradition.
But Ross Lundie, an officer with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), defended the decision not to arrest her on the plane.
“We don’t get on airplanes and arrest people unless there is an immediate security risk,” Lundie testified.
Meng, 48, faces bank fraud charges for allegedly misleading HSBC about Huawei Technologies Co Ltd’s business dealings in Iran, causing the bank to breach US sanctions.
Meng has said he is innocent and is fighting extradition under house arrest in Vancouver.
Lundie told officers who planned to catch Meng on the plane that they would need help from the RCMP airport detachment and the border agency.
CBSA officials previously testified that the interview was standard procedure and wrote down the access codes for Meng’s devices as a matter of process, but later passed them on to RCMP by mistake.
Prosecutors have argued that the investigation and Meng’s arrest were done according to the rules.
Earlier Thursday, one of Meng’s attorneys claimed that a Canadian police supervisor in charge of Meng’s arrest deviated from his initial court presentations on key conversations to protect federal police officers.
Meng’s defense attorney Scott Fenton pointed to a 2019 affidavit in which RCMP Sgt Janice Vander Graaf said she had no recollection of events related to the serial numbers of Meng’s electronic devices, beyond what was recorded in his notes.
On Wednesday, Vander Graaf testified recalling that RCMP agent Gurvinder Dhaliwal mentioned that the serial numbers of Meng’s devices were sent to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
Fenton accused Vander Graaf of covering up for lower-ranking officers when he mentioned the conversation about the police handling the serial numbers of Meng’s devices in court, but not in his affidavit.
He asked Vander Graaf to explain the difference in his memory. “My affidavit was true at the time,” he said. “I have a memory now.”
“I suggest you adapt your evidence to protect the RCMP,” Fenton charged.
“That is absolutely false,” Vander Graaf replied.
Witnesses from the CBSA and RCMP have testified for nearly three weeks about the events surrounding Meng’s arrest and detention. Witness testimony is scheduled to last until Friday, with the possibility of two or three more days scheduled in December.
(Reporting by Sarah Berman in Vancouver; additional reporting by Moira Warburton in Toronto; Editing by Aurora Ellis and Stephen Coates)
