Meng Wanzhou’s lawyer mocks Canada border officers’ testimony, telling extradition judge to be ‘very sceptical’ of honesty
- One officer’s testimony was ‘entirely ridiculous’, while another’s should be viewed with caution, the Huawei executive’s lawyer said
- Arguments in a Vancouver court that Meng’s rights were abused came hours after the espionage trial of Canadian Michael Spavor in China
Huawei Technologies executive Meng Wanzhou’s lawyer ridiculed and rejected the testimony of Canadian border officers who dealt with her before her arrest at Vancouver’s airport 27 months ago, telling the judge at Meng’s extradition hearing on Friday she should be “very cautious” and “very sceptical” of their honesty.
Parts of their testimony were “entirely ridiculous”, said lawyer Mona Duckett, as she made the case that the Canada Border Services Agency [CBSA] unlawfully obtained information from Meng without informing her of her right to legal counsel, in a covert evidence-gathering exercise on behalf of the American Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Duckett told the Supreme Court of British Columbia that CBSA Superintendent Sanjit Dhillon’s questioning of Meng, after she arrived at Vancouver’s airport on December 1, 2018, was “probative of nothing but US assistance”.
Dhillon had asked Meng questions about Huawei’s business in Iran. “Those, remarkably, are connected to the US fraud warrant,” said Duckett sarcastically, referring to the US request that Meng be arrested.
Her answers’ value to Canada was “zero … the value is only to a US audience,” Duckett said. “I would urge the court to be very cautious about officer Dhillon’s evidence.”
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The latest arguments about whether Meng’s Canadian charter rights have been abused – part of her two-year court battle to avoid being sent to face fraud charges in the US – came hours after the espionage trial of Canadian Michael Spavor in China.
Kovrig is due to go on trial on Monday. Canada considers both men victims of arbitrary detention, who were arrested in a retaliatory action.
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Meng’s lawyers say her treatment by Canadian police and border officers was an abuse of power that trampled on her rights, and she should be freed as a remedy. The border officers who questioned her and seized her electronic devices did so not to further a legitimate immigration process, but to illicitly help American investigators, the lawyers say.
On Friday, Duckett was scathing of Dhillon’s colleague, Border Services Officer Scott Kirkland, who had told the court he handed over Meng’s phone passcodes to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in error, and he only realised this possibility during what Duckett derisively called a “eureka moment” at a meeting a couple days after the arrest.
“He is a witness of whom this court should be very sceptical,” said Duckett, who said the passcodes had no value to the CBSA, and were instead wanted by the FBI.
CBSA airport chief Nicole Goodman had testified that Kirkland “turned white” at the meeting when he expressed concerns about the whereabouts of the note.
But this might not have been at Kirkland’s realisation of a mistake, said Duckett, but at “the realisation that his mistake was going to be found out”.
Other parts of Kirkland’s evidence, in which he said it was possible Meng could have been ordered to return to Hong Kong, were “entirely ridiculous” said Duckett, in light of the fact he knew she was going to be arrested.
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On Thursday, another of Meng’s lawyers, Tony Paisana said that Kirkland’s evidence about handing Meng’s passcodes to police by accident had been a “complete fabrication”.
Meng’s lawyers have also depicted her as the victim of a political prosecution, tainted by the comments of former US president Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that appeared to link her case to a US trade deal with China.
Meng, who is Huawei’s chief financial officer and the daughter of company founder Ren Zhengfei, is accused by US prosecutors of defrauding HSBC by lying during a 2013 meeting with a banker about Huawei’s business dealings in Iran, thus putting the bank at risk of breaching US sanctions on Tehran. She denies the charges.
Another of Meng’s lawyers, Scott Fenton, also contended on Friday that there was no legitimate basis for seizing her electronic devices – an Apple iPad and laptop, an iPhone, a Huawei phone and a thumb drive – as requested by the US.
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Fenton referred to an assessment by a Canadian Department of Justice lawyer, Jacqueline Beckles, who had considered whether to hand over the devices to the FBI, in the days after the arrest.
In an email, Beckles concluded there was little chance anything related to Meng’s alleged fraud offences would be found on the devices more than five years later. Hence, said Fenton, their seizure and that of the passcodes was unlawful.
The devices were not given to the Americans.
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Searching the devices also breached Meng’s rights, Fenton said, and although the RCMP denies searching the contents of the devices, they examined them to obtain their serial numbers, sim card numbers and International Mobile Equipment Identity [IMEI] numbers.
This alone constituted a search and was unnecessary to simply inventory the devices, Fenton said – instead, the numbers provided a “gateway” to illegally obtain private information from Meng.
“The question is not ‘what is the actual use [of the numbers]’, the question is ‘what is the potential use’,” said Fenton, who said they could be used to find out a person’s movements, who they met with and other information over which Meng enjoyed a reasonable expectation of privacy.
Fenton said a “reasonable inference” could be drawn that the electronic serial numbers [ESNs] of Meng’s phones had been sent to the FBI, although the RCMP and the Canadian government lawyers representing US interests in the extradition hearing have denied this.
Although there was no proof they had been sent, there was no proof they had not, and the question remained “something of a mystery”, said Fenton.
The refusal of Ben Chang, a former RCMP staff sergeant, to appear before the hearing to testify about the ESNs and whether he sent them to the FBI was the “elephant in the room”, said Fenton. In a sworn statement, Chang has denied doing so.
Meng’s long fight against extradition may be nearing its final stages. The current phase of hearings, which will also address arguments that the US has no jurisdiction under international law to bring the fraud charges, is scheduled to continue until April 1.
The last arguments and a committal hearing are scheduled for April 26 to May 14, after which Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes must decide whether to free Meng or approve her being sent to the US to face trial.
However, appeals could drag out the process for years, and the final decision on whether to extradite her will rest with Canada’s justice minister.
