After weeks of courtroom drama, curtain falls on witness phase of Meng Wanzhou extradition battle
- Canadian border and police officers have been grilled in the witness box, with one sobbing and another telling of a ‘heart-wrenching’ privacy blunder
- A statement of facts undercut the claims of a senior border officer who had denied directing staff not to create more records of Meng’s case
A dramatic phase of Meng Wanzhou’s extradition battle has been completed, with the final witness appearing after weeks of testimony about her lawyers’ claim that the Huawei Technologies executive is the victim of an abuse of process orchestrated by the American FBI.
During four weeks of testimony, Meng’s lawyers have grilled members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) who were involved in Meng’s immigration examination and arrest at Vancouver’s airport on December 1, 2018, and its extraordinary aftermath.
The witness hearings in the Supreme Court of British Columbia concluded on Monday, with a civilian RCMP IT employee who briefly testified about the police force’s email system and searches he had conducted related to Meng’s case.
But there were also moments of high drama during the witness phase, conducted in three stages since October 26. One CBSA officer sobbed as the veracity of her testimony was challenged, another described a “heart-wrenching” breach of Meng’s privacy in which her mobile device passwords were given to the RCMP, and their boss denied destroying documentation of Meng’s treatment.
RCMP Constable Winston Yep testified that he delayed arresting Meng until after her three-hour immigration exam because he did not know “what she was capable of” if he had tried to accost her aboard the plane on which she had arrived from Hong Kong.