A Canadian border officer on Wednesday admitted at Huawei Technologies Co chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou’s (孟晚舟) extradition hearing that he lost possession of passcodes to her electronic devices, handing them to federal police.
Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) officer Scott Kirkland said it is common for travelers to be asked to hand over passwords and access codes during an inspection, as Meng was on Dec. 1, 2018, during a Canadian stopover from Hong Kong.
He said he usually writes the passcodes on a sticky note or piece of paper that is returned to them afterwards, but after handing Meng over to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), when he could not find the piece of paper with her passcodes, he realized that he had given them to the RCMP.
Photo: Reuters
“I didn’t know if that piece of paper went with [the RCMP], or with the folder we created, or was still on the counter. I looked on the counter and the folder, but couldn’t find it,” he said.
Handing the passcodes to the RCMP is a breach of Canada’s privacy laws.
Earlier, defense lawyer Richard Peck accused a Canadian policeman of giving “not an honest” reply on whether Meng should be extradited to the US.
The accusation targeted RCMP Constable Winston Yep’s testimony about why he delayed arresting Meng on a US warrant during her stopover in Vancouver.
Meng is wanted by the US on fraud charges related to breachin g US sanctions on Iran.
Yep testified that he did not immediately arrest Meng when her flight landed because of “safety reasons,” telling the court she might have had a knife, secret bodyguards or even “countersurveillance” agents with her.
Yep testified that border officials told him they had their own concerns about Meng’s immigration status and he did not want to infringe on their jurisdiction, so agreed that they should screen Meng first then he would make the arrest.
However, Peck replied: “My view is that’s not an honest answer. Safety was never an issue; that’s my suggestion to you.”
Yep was the first in a series of witnesses called to testify at the request of Meng’s lawyers.
Her legal team is gathering evidence for arguments it will make next year that she was subjected to an abuse of process.
Meng was interrogated by the CBSA for nearly three hours without legal representation, before being arrested by the RCMP.
The extradition case is scheduled to wrap up in April next year.
Additional reporting by AP
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