A Huawei executive threatened extradition to the US on Thursday and accused Canada of “destroying evidence” by deleting emails and texts from a former police officer involved in his arrest in late 2018 in Vancouver.
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Lawyers for Meng Wanzhou, the financial director of the Chinese telecom giant, have been trying for months to prove his rights were violated during his arrest, hoping to block extradition proceedings to the United States that should end in mid-May.
Ms Meng was arrested on December 1, 2018 at Vancouver Airport at the request of the United States. The US judge accuses him of circumventing US sanctions against Iran by lying to HSBC about the ties between Huawei and its subsidiary doing business in this country.
In new documents revealed in Vancouver court on Thursday, Meng’s lawyers claimed that Canada violated their client’s rights by erasing emails, texts and documents from the computer of Sgt. Bin Zhang, who had participated in Ms. Meng’s arrest, after her departure from Canada. Federal Police 2019.
They suspect that Mr. Zhang then sent an email to the US FBI that illegally contained passwords for his electronic devices seized at the airport, a claim the attorney general denied.
The prosecution responded, “There is no evidence that the Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) (Canadian Federal Police) and CBSA (Canada Border Services Agency) systematically destroyed the evidence.”
Mr. Zhang, who was questioned under oath, denied having passed on this classified information to the US Federal Police. However, he refused to testify himself before a Vancouver judge, a position that is “untenable” according to Ms. Meng’s defense.
Mona Duckett, a defense attorney, confirmed Thursday that Canadian customs officers and police have no legal reason to obtain passwords for phones and other electronic devices from Meng Wanzhou.
According to them, they did so illegally to allow the FBI to collect suspicious information, which in their view should lead to the cancellation of the entire procedure.
Relations between Ottawa and Beijing have been in an unprecedented crisis since the arrest of former Canadian diplomat Michael Coffrig and his compatriot Michael Spavor, accused of spying, a few days after the arrest of Meng Wanzhou.
The Canadians are due to be tried in China from Friday for Mr. Spavor and Monday for Mr. Covrej.
