The decision to delay the arrest of Meng Wanzhou until Canadian border officers had first questioned her in a three-hour examination at Vancouver's airport was not directed by police or the US Federal Bureau of Investigation to gather evidence against her, Canadian government lawyers told the Huawei executive's extradition hearing on Wednesday.

Lawyer Diba Majzub told Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes of the Supreme Court of British Columbia that Meng's Canadian charter rights were not activated by the "routine procedures" of the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA).

"It wasn't the RCMP [Royal Canadian Mounted Police] telling the CBSA 'would you go first and do something for us?' It wasn't the FBI talking to the CBSA. It was the CBSA that made that decision," Majzub said.

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The decision by the border officers that their procedures should take priority over the arrest by the RCMP on December 1, 2018 - on a warrant that said Meng should be arrested "immediately" - was reasonable in the context of a port of entry, Majzub argued.

Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies, leaves the Supreme Court of British Columbia during a break from her extradition proceedings in Vancouver on Tuesday. Photo: The Canadian Press via AP alt=Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies, leaves the Supreme Court of British Columbia during a break from her extradition proceedings in Vancouver on Tuesday. Photo: The Canadian Press via AP

The RCMP officers tasked with arresting Meng likewise recognised they were on CBSA "turf", Majzub said.

"The immediacy requirement in the warrant was not the determining factor," in deciding which agencies' requirements took priority, said Majzub. "Context matters, that's the point," he added, and the warrant's immediacy requirement "was not a command to ignore reason".

Meng's lawyers contend that her arrest on a US-requested warrant, to face trial for fraud in New York, was deliberately delayed so the border officers could act as proxies for the FBI to conduct a covert criminal investigation.

They say her questioning by border officers and their seizure of her electronic devices and passcodes was not a legitimate immigration process, but was an unlawful attempt to investigate her on behalf of the Americans.

The passcodes were given to the RCMP in a breach of Meng's privacy, both sides agree, but the government lawyers say this was done by accident.

Meng is applying to have her extradition thrown out on the basis that her Canadian charter rights were abused so "egregiously" that a stay of proceedings is the only remedy.

But government lawyers say the abuse did not occur. Meng's claim that there was a conspiracy between the FBI, RCMP and CBSA was based on nothing more than "speculation and innuendo", they say.

The RCMP gained no advantage by the arrest being delayed, said Majzub. In a written submission, the government argued the allegation that the RCMP "manipulated the sequence of processes" to disadvantage Meng was "entirely speculative".

And while the border officers knew Meng was going to be arrested, their pursuit of evidence of criminality by Meng was valid to establish her admissibility to Canada, said Majzub, and not to further the US prosecution. It just happened that the reason for the admissibility concern was the same reason for her arrest, he said.

"[The] CBSA had bona fide national security and criminal inadmissibility concerns," the submission said.

Meng, 49, who is the chief financial officer of Huawei and the eldest daughter of company founder Ren Zhengfei, is accused of defrauding HSBC by lying about Huawei's business dealings in Iran, thus putting the bank at risk of breaching US sanctions on Tehran. She has been fighting the US extradition request for the past 27 months.

The extradition case may be nearing its final stages. Hearings are due to conclude on May 14, after which Holmes must decide whether to approve extradition. However, appeals could last for years, and a final decision on whether to send Meng to the US will rest with Canada's justice minister.

Meng's arrest threw China's relations with Canada and the US into turmoil. Two Canadians, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, were detained by China days after Meng's arrest, and they both underwent brief trials in the past week.

The trials, conducted in secret due to national security considerations according to Chinese officials, concluded in a matter of hours without verdicts being announced.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other officials have said the men are victims of arbitrary detention and "hostage diplomacy" by China, in retaliation for Meng's arrest.

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.