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(Recasts with details from court proceedings)
By Sarah Berman
VANCOUVER, Nov 27 (Reuters) - A Canadian police officer
stationed at the Vancouver airport who rejected a plan to arrest
Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou on the plane she
arrived on two years ago, on Friday testified that at the time
he told other police officers the best course was to allow
border agents to interrogate Meng before arresting her.
The testimony from Ross Lundie, a sergeant with the Royal
Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Vancouver International Airport
detachment, came at the end of two weeks of witness
cross-examination in Meng's U.S. extradition case.
Meng, 48, was arrested on a U.S. warrant on charges of bank
fraud for allegedly misleading HSBC about Huawei
Technologies Co Ltd's business dealings in Iran,
causing the bank to break U.S. sanctions.
She was arrested at the Vancouver airport in December 2018
following a three-hour examination by officials with the Canada
Border Services Agency (CBSA). The interrogation has become a
flashpoint in the case to extradite Meng to the United States.
Her lawyers allege that Canadian and U.S. authorities
conspired to use the additional investigative powers of the CBSA
to interrogate Meng without a lawyer present. They further claim
that the RCMP passed on identifying details of Meng’s electronic
devices to U.S. authorities, in violation of her civil rights.
As evidence, Meng's lawyers have pointed out that the RCMP
could have arrested Meng on the plane but instead chose to allow
the CBSA to conduct an investigation first.
Lundie, the sergeant with the RCMP Vancouver airport
detachment, testified on Friday about his phone conversations
with police officers who had planned to arrest Meng on the plane
she arrived on. Lundie said he told police that he didn't think
it was a good idea and that the CBSA needed to be looped in.
He told the court that problems can arise when police do not
respect the authority of other partner agencies, and said the
RCMP does not normally make arrests aboard planes "unless
there's fighting or something extreme going on."
Friday marked the end of the second of three legs of witness
testimony during which defense lawyers attempted to show that
enough abuses of process took place during Meng's detainment by
Canadian authorities to invalidate the extradition. Witness
hearing is to resume on Dec. 7.
Meng has said she is innocent and is fighting the
extradition while under house arrest in Vancouver.
Prosecutors have argued that Meng’s investigation and arrest
followed standard procedures.
On Wednesday the RCMP supervisor in charge of Meng’s arrest
testified that she had relayed a suggestion from her superior to
arrest Meng on the plane but that she did not think it was a
good idea. She also testified that emails she
reviewed did not show the RCMP passed serial numbers of Meng’s
devices to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Lundie testified Thursday that he had suggested the CBSA
conduct its examination of Meng first.
Diplomatic relations between Ottawa and Beijing have
deteriorated since Meng’s arrest. China arrested Canadian
citizens Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig on espionage charges
days later.
Meng's extradition hearing is expected to wrap up in April
2021.
(Reporting by Sarah Berman in Vancouver; Additional reporting
by Moira Warburton in Toronto;
Editing by Denny Thomas Editing by Leslie Adler)
