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Meng Wanzhou wins Canada court battle to see evidence of her detention, could play a major role in the case
The legal team of Huawei Chief Financial officer, Meng Wanzhou has been granted permission by Canada’s attorney general to hand over evidence and documents of her arrest.
Meng’s lawyers say Meng was denied her constitutional rights when she was detained, interrogated and searched for three hours at Vancouver’s international airport in December by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) before being formally arrested.
According to Reuters, Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes in the Supreme Court of British Columbia agreed with Huawei’s appeal for Canada’s attorney general release more documents relating to the run-up to and events of the arrest.
Meng’s team says that the evidence could support its claim of an abuse of process.
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 the gaps in evidence raised 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.”
Currently, there’s no exact timeline announced for the Holmes’ next ruling.
Meng Wanzhou daughter of Huawei founder and CEO, Ren Zhengfei, was arrested at Vancouver’s airport on December 1, 2018, under a U.S. request and is fighting extradition on allegations of bank fraud, and violation of sanction on Iran, of which she said she is innocent and her detention is politically motivated.
Meng’s team proposed that the extradition hearing should wrap up in October 2020, with extra time set aside in November 2020 in case it is needed.
Also, Check – Meng Wanzhou’s extradition hearing will begin in January 2020
