Government refused to disclose the key documents concerning the arrest of Meng Wanzhou, Huawei‘s chief financial officer, in 2018 at Vancouver’s airport despite the request from Meng’s lawyer, on the first day of the week-long court hearing.
At 10:00 on Monday local time, the Supreme Court of British Columbia (BCSC) in Canada started to hear the extradition case – in which, the United States requested Meng’s extradition from Canada on fraud charges. It ended at 16:00.
Meng was at the hearing by phone from her Vancouver home.
Meng’s lawyers asked to disclose more information that they believe could prove Meng a victim of misconduct.
Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes asked the Canadian government at the request of Meng’s lawyers to disclose documents related to Meng’s arrest in December 2019. The disclosed documents showed that Canada Border Services Agency officers illegally arrested, searched, and interrogated Meng in the name of customs inspection at the Vancouver airport, and they illegally gave the collected information to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The disclosed information suggested that Meng was arrested, searched, and interrogated by the Canadian law enforcement agency under the control of the U.S. legal agencies. It is a misconduct of the law enforcement.
However, there are still a lot of information on the disclosed documents being covered, because the Canadian government thought them to be sensitive information and relate to national security.
According to Meng’s lawyer, based on information that has been disclosed, in the arrest operation jointly planned by Canada and the U.S., the law enforcement department of the U.S. manipulated its counterpart of Canada to arrest Meng, and disguised the illegal detention and interrogation into customs inspection, which was an abuse of the judicial proceeding.
“Because so much went wrong, there was an abuse of process, state proceedings, we can not allow this to go forward,” said Richard Kurland, a local lawyer who has been following Meng’s case.
The Supreme Court of British Columbia made its decision on May 27, ruling that the case met the standard for “double criminality,” and thus the extradition hearing is allowed to continue on the second defenses.
During the five-day course, the court will hear debates from both the defendant and the prosecutor, as well as suggestions from amicus curiae before deciding whether to release more information related to Meng’s arrest.
The Supreme Court of British Columbia will have court trials in February and April next year on the latter two defenses.
Source: cctvplus
