US and Canadian authorities colluded in an illegal detention, search and interrogation of Meng Wanzhou, which they then tried to cover up in an abuse of process that can only be remedied by setting her free, a lawyer for the Huawei Technologies Co. executive told her extradition hearing on Wednesday.

In blistering opening remarks to the Supreme Court of British Columbia in Vancouver, Meng's lawyer Tony Paisana accused Canadian border officers and police of showing "flagrant disregard" for her rights, then giving evidence that was "less than truthful" and even "absurd".

The argument represents a key platform of Meng's two-year battle to thwart the American bid to have her sent to New York to face fraud charges, in a case that has infuriated Beijing and spurred a monumental shift in Chinese relations with the US and Canada.

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Meng's lawyers say Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) officers acted at the behest of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to covertly obtain evidence to support their fraud case.

But Canadian government lawyers representing US interests in the case said in a filing there was no evidence of US misconduct, and that Canadian police and border agents did not abuse their powers.

Paisana was scathing about the officers' actions, before and after Meng was arrested at Vancouver's airport on December 1, 2018.

He said they deliberately ignored a court order to "immediately" arrest Meng and instead delayed doing so for three hours, during which she was questioned and her electronic devices seized, in an illicit use of their powers to aid the US investigation. They then engaged in "crafting" their notes to obscure their actions, deliberately stopped making records of the process, he said.

"The RCMP and CBSA had a duty to her [to] act honourably and transparently", and not to engage in subterfuge, Paisana said.

"The authorities failed in these duties, at times miserably," he said, and were motivated by a desire to "appease and otherwise comply with demands from the FBI". Their actions spanned the spectrum from "negligence and casual indifference ... to flagrant disregard" for Meng's rights, Paisana said.

Paisana said that officers who have testified to the extradition hearing gave "less than truthful testimony ... bordering on the absurd".

And in an "unprecedented act", retired RCMP sergeant Ben Chang had refused to testify about his actions involving Meng's electronic devices and his communication with the FBI, Paisana said.

In a court filing on Tuesday, Canadian government lawyers said there was "no basis for a claim of misconduct by US authorities" and "equally no evidence that the RCMP or CBSA misused their powers".

"The evidence instead demonstrates that the communications between US and Canadian authorities were legitimate exercises of their respective authorities. There is no evidence that US authorities directed or improperly influenced Canadian actors. Information was shared in a lawful manner," the filing said.

Meng, the chief financial officer of Huawei and the daughter of company founder Ren Zhengfei, is accused of defrauding HSBC by lying to a banker in 2013 about Huawei's business dealings in Iran, putting the bank at risk of breaching US sanctions on the Middle Eastern country. She denies the charges.

Paisana said the provisional arrest warrant for Meng, issued by a Canadian judge on November 30, 2018 after a US request, was obtained on the basis of false or misleading claims - that Meng was a fugitive avoiding travel to the US because she was aware of the charges against her, that her stopover in Vancouver represented a unique opportunity to capture her, and that she had "no ties" to Canada.

But in fact, he said, Meng was a "global traveller" with extensive connections to Canada who had repeatedly and recently visited Vancouver.

The indictment against Meng was sealed, and there was no way she could have even known of the charges, let alone tried to avoid them, said Paisana. But this was a "discoverable fact" for RCMP Constable Winston Yep, who had provided an affidavit in support of the warrant, and later arrested Meng.

Meng Wanzhou leaves her home in Vancouver on Wednesday. She is wearing a GPS tracker on her ankle to monitor her movements. Photo: The Canadian Press via AP alt=Meng Wanzhou leaves her home in Vancouver on Wednesday. She is wearing a GPS tracker on her ankle to monitor her movements. Photo: The Canadian Press via AP

Paisana read a transcript of Meng's conversation with Yep after he told her at the airport that she was being arrested.

"You're saying I committed fraud in the United States?" Meng had asked.

Paisana said Meng's surprised response "poignantly" demonstrated her ignorance of the charges, and that she did not understand what was happening to her.

As for Meng's supposed absence of ties to Canada, Paisana said Yep had sworn to this without knowing that she owned two homes in Vancouver.

In its request for Meng's arrest, the US had depicted her trip to Vancouver as a "once in a lifetime" opportunity to arrest her, said Paisana. But Meng had travelled to Canada six other times in 2018, as recently as October 5 that year.

Meng had also travelled the world in the year of her arrest, including numerous other places with US extradition treaties.

It was therefore "extremely misleading" to suggest it would have been otherwise difficult to arrest Meng, if not in Vancouver on December 1, 2018, said Paisana, as on that very trip, Meng had been due to travel onwards to Mexico, Argentina and France. All three are extradition treaty partners with the US.

The protracted extradition fight may be reaching its end game. This phase of hearings will last until April 1, before a final stage of arguments and committal hearings scheduled for April 26 to May 14, after which Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes will decide whether to release Meng or approve her being sent to the US for trial.

But the final decision on whether to extradite her will be up to Canada's justice minister, and appeals could drag out the process for years.

The claims of illicit collusion and a cover-up represent one part of a four-pronged argument by Meng's lawyers, that she has suffered an abuse of process that must be remedied by freeing her.

They also claim she is the victim of a political prosecution, citing remarks by former US president Donald Trump that he would "certainly intervene" in her case if it helped the US strike a trade deal with China; that US authorities misled the BC court about the facts of the case; and that the US has no jurisdiction over Meng's activities in a foreign business transaction, since she is a Chinese citizen, HSBC is not a US bank, and the 2013 meeting took place in Hong Kong.

China's government has repeatedly called for Meng to be released. In the days after her arrest, Chinese authorities arrested two Canadians, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, and accused them of espionage. Ottawa regards them as hostages taken in retaliation for Meng's arrest.

Meng has been living under partial house arrest in a C$13.2 million (US$10.6 million) mansion, one of the homes she owns in Vancouver.

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 © 2021 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

Copyright (c) 2021. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.