(Adds details of ruling)
By David Kirton and Moira Warburton
Dec 10 (Reuters) - Lawyers for Huawei's chief financial
officer have won a court battle after a judge asked Canada's
attorney general to hand over more evidence and documents
relating to the arrest of Meng Wanzhou, according to a court
ruling released on Tuesday.
Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes in the Supreme Court
of British Columbia agreed with Huawei Technologies Co Ltd's
legal team that there is an "air of reality" to their
assertion.
But she cautioned that her ruling is limited and does not
address the merit of Huawei's allegations that Canadian
authorities improperly handled identifying information about
Meng's electronic devices.
Meng, 47, was arrested at the Vancouver International
Airport on Dec. 1, 2018, at the request of the United States,
where she is charged with bank fraud and accused of misleading
the bank HSBC about Huawei Technologies' business in
Iran. She has said she is innocent and is fighting extradition.
She was questioned by Canadian immigration authorities prior
to her arrest, and her lawyers have asked the government to hand
over more documents about her arrest.
Meng's legal team has contested her extradition in the
Canadian courts on the grounds that the United States is using
her extradition for economic and political gain, and that she
was unlawfully detained, searched and interrogated by Canadian
authorities acting on behalf of the U.S. Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI).
In her ruling, Holmes wrote that she found the evidence
tendered by the attorney general to have "notable gaps," citing
the example of why the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA)
"made what is described as the simple error of turning over to
the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police), contrary to law, the
passcodes CBSA officers had required Ms. Meng to produce."
Holmes also said the attorney general did not provide
adequate evidence to "rebut inferences from other evidence that
the RCMP improperly sent serial numbers and other identifiers of
Ms. Meng's devices to the FBI."
Holmes said these gaps in evidence raise questions "beyond
the frivolous or speculative about the chain of events," and led
her to conclude that Meng's application "crosses the air of
reality threshold."
The order does not require the disclosure of documents - the
attorney general may assert a privilege, which Meng could
contest in court.
Neither the Canadian federal justice ministry nor Huawei
immediately responded to requests for comment.
No timeline was outlined in Holmes' ruling.
Meng's extradition hearing will begin on Jan. 20, 2020, in a
federal court in Vancouver.
(Reporting by David Kirton in Shanghai and Moira Warburton in
Toronto
Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Matthew Lewis)
HSBC Holdings (HSBA)
