Meng Wanzhou’s legal team aims to bolster extradition argument in B.C Supreme Court

A border officer denies that he led Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou to believe that she was required to share the passcodes to her phones when he asked for them before her arrest two years ago.

The B.C. Supreme Court is hearing evidence this week that Meng’s defence team hopes will bolster an argument they will make next year during extradition proceedings that she was subject to an abuse of process.

The defence alleges that Meng was subjected to a “co-ordinated strategy” to have the RCMP delay her arrest so border officials could question Meng under the pretense of a routine immigration exam, and that both RCMP and Canada Border Services Agency officials kept intentionally poor notes.

Scott Kirkland, a border services officer, is the second witness testifying in the evidentiary hearing and he says he wrote down Meng’s phone numbers and passcodes because she was uncomfortable with her own handwriting.

He says Meng asked why he needed them and he told her it was for the purposes of the customs and immigration examination at Vancouver’s airport.

He says he asked for the passwords to her other devices but she declined.