Chinese CFO claims she was detained and interrogated by the Canadian government before being told she was under arrest, and is suing them for extracting evidence’ before arrest as she faces extradition to U.S.
Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Chinese technology company Huawei, is suing the Canadian government, its border agency and the national police force over her high-profile detention. Meng claims they detained, searched and interrogated her before telling her she was under arrest.
Meng’s lawyers said Sunday they had filed a notice of civil claim in the supreme court in British Columbia.
Meng, the daughter of Huawei’s founder, was arrested on Dec.1, 2018 at Vancouver airport after a request by the U.S. government who accused her of misleading banks about Huawei’s business deal’s with Iran.
According to RT, Meng claimed that the Canadian border agency and national police “trampled on her constitutional rights” when she was detained. Her lawsuit claims that she was interrogated “under the guise of a routine customs” examination and used the opportunity to “compel her to provide evidence and information.”
According to the Guardian, Meng claimed Canada Border Service Agency (CBSA) agents seized her electronic devices, forcefully obtained passwords, and unlawfully viewed their contents. She was only arrested after three hours of detention.
“This case concerns a deliberate and pre-meditated effort on the part of the defendant officers to obtain evidence and information from the plaintiff in a manner which they knew constituted serious violations of the plaintiff’s rights,” the claim says.
Meng is currently out on bail and living in Vancouver awaiting extradition proceedings.
Nicholas Dorion, a spokesman for the Canada Border Services Agency, said it’s not a practice of the agency to comment on legal matters that are before the courts. A justice department spokesman referred comment to the border agency and a spokesman of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said they were unlikely to comment Sunday.
Meng is facing charges in the U.S., including bank fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy, which stem from her allegedly circumventing U.S. sanctions on Iran. Beijing has denounced her arrest as “political persecution,” demanding that she be immediately released and that Washington drop the extradition request, reports RT.
