(Adds details of Meng's arrival to court, defense lawyers'
initial questions)
By Tessa Vikander and Moira Warburton
VANCOUVER/TORONTO, Oct 27 (Reuters) - Huawei Technologies Co
Ltd lawyers resumed witness testimony in a Vancouver court on
Tuesday, pushing a Canadian federal police officer to explain
why the border security officials intercepted the company's
Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou before the federal police
arrested her.
Huawei's legal team took the floor on the second day of the
hearings in the British Columbia Supreme Court, where Meng is
fighting her extradition case to the United States.
The five days of scheduled hearings will focus on
allegations by her lawyers of abuses of process committed by
Canadian and U.S. authorities during her arrest in December 2018
at the Vancouver International Airport.
Meng, 48, is facing charges in the United States of bank
fraud for allegedly misleading HSBC about Huawei's
business dealings in Iran, causing the bank to break
U.S. sanction laws.
She has claimed innocence but remains under house arrest in
her Vancouver home, located in an upscale neighborhood of the
Pacific coastal city, for the duration of the trial.
Meng was questioned for three hours by Canada Border
Services Agency (CBSA) officers without any legal representation
and her electronic devices were seized before RCMP officials
arrested her, according to court documents.
On Tuesday, Meng's lawyer Richard Peck went over a series of
text messages, and emails that Royal Canadian Mounted Police
(RCMP) Constable Winston Yep sent and received before arresting
Meng, as well as the notes Yep took throughout the day in his
notebook.
Specifically, he presented Yep with an email where the U.S.
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said to the RCMP that the
"best way to ensure CBSA to interject" is to know Meng's name
and flight details ahead of her arrival.
Meng's lawyers have previously alleged that Canadian
authorities improperly communicated with their U.S. counterparts
during her arrest, including sharing identifying details about
her electronic devices.
Canada has denied this and provided affidavits from members
of RCMP who were involved in Meng's arrest.
Meng arrived in court on Tuesday, accompanied by her
translator. She spoke with Chinese consular officials before
seating herself in the courtroom.
Her lawyers' questions build on themes from Monday, when
prosecutors for the Canadian government questioned Yep about how
the decision was made to allow the CBSA to intercept Meng before
the RCMP arrested her.
Meng's lawyers have argued that Canadian and American
authorities made this decision because CBSA officers have
special privileges in searching and investigating individuals
crossing Canada's borders.
They strove on Monday to highlight lapses of due process
during Meng's arrest, including Yep's failure to promptly
complete a chronological account of the extradition as required
by Canadian extradition law.
Although Yep, under Peck's questioning, acknowledged it was
considered "a possibility" for the RCMP to arrest Meng while her
plane was on the tarmac, he insisted the police did not want to
intrude on the CBSA's jurisdiction.
"It could have been just as easy for you to arrest her as
soon as she got off the plane, hand her over to the CBSA...then
take her," Peck said. "That way she'd have her rights."
Meng's arrest triggered an ongoing chill in diplomatic
relations between Ottawa and Beijing. Soon after her detention,
China arrested Canadian citizens Michael Spavor and Michael
Kovrig on espionage charges in what was widely seen as
retaliation.
The trial is scheduled to wrap up in April 2021, although
the potential for appeals means the case could drag on for years
through the Canadian justice system.
(Reporting by Tessa Vikander in Vancouver and Moira Warburton
in Toronto;
Editing by Denny Thomas and Lisa Shumaker)
HSBC Holdings (HSBA)