Meng Wanzhou's lawyers seek access to 37 key documents to challenge extradition
Lawyers for Meng Wanzhou have zeroed in on communications including the Huawei executive's 2018 arrest as they tried to persuade a B.C. Supreme Court judge to release records they believe could prove Meng was a victim of misconduct.
The chief financial officer's defence team argued that wrongdoing on the part of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and Canada Border Services Agency officers who restrained and arrested Meng meant that the Crown should not be able to shield certain details of their plan from public view.
Defence lawyer Scott Fenton claimed there has been"an inconsistency and an unfairness" in the Crown's decision to release certain information related to requests under international treaties by U.S. authorities for information about Meng's electronic devices.
The lawyers also suggested documents disclosed to the defence in recent months suggest U.S. authorities were still interested in obtaining information related to Meng's laptop, phones and tablet more than two months after she was arrested on an extradition warrant despite the Crown's insistence that those details were never shared with American law enforcement.
The arguments came on the first day of what is expected to be a week's worth of hearings related to legal privileges attached to documents generated by the high-profile case.
The U.S. wants Meng extradited to New York to face conspiracy and fraud charges related to allegations, she lied to an HSBC banker at a meeting in Hong Kong about Huawei's relationship with a subsidiary accused of violating U.S. economic sanctions against Iran.
Meng's lawyers claim U.S. and Canadian authorities plotted to dishonour her rights at the time of her arrest by holding the CBSA detain and interrogate her without a lawyer and seize her electronic devices.
They plan to argue in future hearings that the case should be tossed because of an abuse of process. The newest set of proceedings involve the texts the defence claims they'll require to get that claim.
