Lawyers for Meng Wanzhou on Wednesday accused Canadian authorities of misinterpreting the law to justify border officers' search and questioning of the Huawei executive before her December 1 arrest, saying it should have been a "foregone conclusion" that she would be admitted to Canada.

The lawyers continued to argue in a Vancouver court that the Huawei executive had been the victim of an abuse of process by Canadian authorities when they arrested her on behalf of the US, and that more documents relating to the arrest should be released amid her high-stakes extradition battle.

Meng, 47, the daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, was arrested at Vancouver's airport on December 1 during a stopover on her way from Hong Kong to Mexico.

The US wants Meng to face trial for allegedly defrauding HSBC by misleading the bank about Huawei's business dealings in Iran.

"The attorney general's submissions ignore the practical reality ... it was a foregone conclusion that [Meng] was entering Canada," said Scott Fenton, one of Meng's lawyers.

Meng, a former permanent resident of Canada, visited the country more than 50 times over the past decade, including six times in 2018 before her arrest, immigration records provided to the court show.

Fenton said border officers were wrong to search Meng and seize her electronic devices despite knowing that there was a court order requiring that she be arrested "immediately".

"There was no need for the [Canadian Border Services Agency] to conduct an admissibility [examination] ... based on the information that they knew in advance [that she was subject to a US warrant] there was no need for any form of examination."

"The provisional arrest warrant took precedence over any immigration related concerns," said Fenton. "The CBSA officers were effectively performing a form of criminal investigation ... instead of a bona fide immigration examination."

Fenton said that in any case, Meng's immigration exam was never completed. "It remains deferred 10 months later," he said.

Meng Wanzhou waves as she leaves her home for a court hearing in Vancouver on Wednesday. Photo: The Canadian Press via AP alt=Meng Wanzhou waves as she leaves her home for a court hearing in Vancouver on Wednesday. Photo: The Canadian Press via AP

"In no universe of possibilities was Ms Meng ever going to be turned away [because this would] frustrate the arrest of Ms Meng," said Fenton. "To send her back to Hong Kong ... would have been unheard of [and] absurd."

Fenton said that the CBSA officers' notes about Meng's immigration exam were inadequate and that a sworn statement by officer Scott Kirkland about having seized and bagged Meng's phones was "clearly misleading" because it omitted that he had been asked to do so by the RCMP.

Meng's lawyers say Canadian border officers improperly delayed the executive's arrest at the airport by three hours to conduct a "covert criminal investigation" into her at the request of the US FBI and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

In that time, they said, CBSA agents questioned Meng about Huawei's Iran business, seized her electronic devices and "compelled" her to hand over their passwords.

Said Fenton: "The actions the CBSA undertook, in searching and releasing the applicant show that [the arrest warrant] took precedence ... the CBSA suspended their examination at 2.11pm and the first thing they did was give away [to the RCMP] the electronics and passwords they obtained."

Meng Wanzhou's MacBook computer is seen in a Royal Canadian Mounted Police photo after it was seized at the Vancouver International Airport on December 1. Photo: British Columbia Supreme Court alt=Meng Wanzhou's MacBook computer is seen in a Royal Canadian Mounted Police photo after it was seized at the Vancouver International Airport on December 1. Photo: British Columbia Supreme Court

He asked rhetorically why this would occur if the seizure was part of a bona fide immigration examination. The seizure, instead, "was ultimately for the benefit of the FBI", he said.

Fenton also said there were indications of an attempt by the CBSA to "recast the events after the fact". He pointed to "troubling" handwritten notes of a CBSA meeting that said: "Don't suggest at any point that RCMP was leader" and "explain that surrendering phone request is normal, she did this voluntarily."

He said the undated notes, taken by an unidentified person at the CBSA, were likely made some time in December 2018.

A claim by another CBSA officer, Sowsmith Katragadda, that it was he who decided that Meng should be subjected to a search when he encountered her, after she disembarked from a Cathay Pacific flight, was not true, said Fenton.

"It was preordained that that would happen. She was targeted," said Fenton. "To say that he made the decision at the time is, respectfully, false."

Handwritten notes from a CBSA meeting about the immigration examination of Meng Wanzhou. Photo: British Columbia Supreme Court alt=Handwritten notes from a CBSA meeting about the immigration examination of Meng Wanzhou. Photo: British Columbia Supreme Court

He called Katragadda's statements "actively misleading" and "unacceptable".

Closing submissions by Meng's team, Fenton said there was "strong evidence" that Meng was "tricked and she was unfairly ... deprived of her constitutional rights".

Wednesday is the third day of a scheduled eight-day hearing on evidence disclosure in British Columbia's Supreme Court, before Justice Heather Holmes. The formal extradition hearing is scheduled to begin in January and last until October or November 2020.

That was in defiance of a court order that Meng be arrested "immediately", say her lawyers, who are using the current hearing to seek disclosure of more documents they believe may demonstrate an abuse of process.

Lawyers for Canada's attorney general, representing the US, deny that an abuse of process occurred and say they have fulfilled their disclosure obligations.

"There is an 'air of reality' that there was a misuse of the CBSA's extraordinary powers," Fenton said, referring to the threshold for Holmes to approve the request for additional disclosure.

On Wednesday, Meng was dressed in a striped shirt and blue trousers, in contrast to the flashy designer outfits she wore at the first two days of the hearing.

Meng's case has been a flashpoint in US-China relations, with US President Donald Trump suggesting he might intervene if it helped in the ongoing trade war.

Her arrest also sent China-Canada relations plunging. Two Canadians, Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, have been charged with espionage in China in a move widely seen in Canada as retribution for Meng's arrest.

Meng, who was once a Canadian permanent resident, is currently free on bail, living in a C$13 million (US$9.8 million) home that is one of two properties she owns in Vancouver.

This is a developing story and will be updated throughout the day.

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2019 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

Copyright (c) 2019. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.