London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Friday, Aug 22, 2025

Meng’s lawyer accuses Canadian officer of lying in court about arrest

Meng’s lawyer accuses Canadian officer of lying in court about arrest

Lawyer Richard Peck rejected Constable Winston Yep’s testimony that safety concerns helped guide his decision to delay Meng’s arrest at Vancouver’s airport. Peck says the delay was part of a covert plot to gather evidence for US prosecutors.

Meng Wanzhou’s lawyer has accused the Canadian police officer who arrested her of lying on the witness stand when he testified that safety considerations guided his decision not to arrest the Huawei executive as soon as she stepped off a flight at Vancouver’s airport.

Richard Peck delivered gruelling cross-examination of Royal Canadian Mounted Police Constable Winston Yep over three days in the Supreme Court of British Columbia in Vancouver, attempting to depict Yep’s conduct as part of a covert plot to gather evidence against the Huawei executive on behalf of US authorities.

The hearing is part of an extradition case in which Meng is attempting to defeat a US bid to have her sent to New York to face fraud charges.

On Wednesday morning, Peck concluded his cross-examination by pressing Yep about why he did not arrest Meng on the airport jetway. He rejected the officer’s assertion this decision was partly premised on safety considerations.

“My view is that that is not an honest answer, that safety was never an issue,” said Peck, having spent Monday and Tuesday building up to the accusation.


Peck and his team say Yep’s arrest of Meng was deliberately delayed by more than three hours at Vancouver’s airport after she got off a flight from Hong Kong on December 1, 2018.

They say this was to allow border officers to first question Meng and seize her electronic devices at the direction of the US authorities and in violation of her rights because she was not told she was about to be arrested, nor given the opportunity to have a lawyer present.

The delay also breached the terms of a warrant which said she should be arrested “immediately”, they say, and because of the violation of Meng’s rights the US extradition bid should be thrown out. Presiding over the Canadian case is Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes, who will make the ruling.

Peck asked on Wednesday if the delay in the arrest was deliberately intended to deny Meng her rights.

“No, it was not intentional,” Yep said. He added: “I don’t think the three-hour delay was unreasonable.”

Yep, who became the first witness in Meng’s extradition battle when he took to the witness box on Monday, had said the arrest was a normal operation. He earlier testified that he allowed Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) officers to initially intercept and question Meng – instead of himself arresting her on the plane or as soon as she stepped off it – because the airport was CBSA jurisdiction.

Yep said Meng might have “put up a fight” on the plane, an assertion Peck repeatedly questioned. Peck raised an email between Yep’s RCMP superiors the day before the operation, that said it carried “no officer safety concerns”.

On Monday, Peck asked Yep if the safety considerations “just popped into your head” on the witness box.

Meng, 48, is Huawei Technologies’ chief financial officer and the daughter of company founder Ren Zhengfei. She is accused by the US of defrauding HSBC bank by lying about Huawei’s business dealings in Iran, putting the bank at risk of violating US sanctions.

Trudeau rejects releasing Meng Wanzhou to free detained Canadians in China


eck’s questioning of Yep sketched out the 24 hours leading up Meng’s arrest.

On Tuesday, Peck quizzed Yep about an affidavit he swore the day before the operation, in which he said Meng “appears to have no ties to Canada”, and this supported the need for a judge to issue a warrant to prevent her escaping the country.

Yet Meng owned two houses in Vancouver, something Yep agreed he became aware of a few hours later, and was discussed with CBSA officers at a pre-arrest meeting Yep attended. Meng also held Canadian residency at one point, and Yep knew CBSA officers wanted to determine her immigration status.

Peck asked why these inconsistencies with Yep’s affidavit – prepared by Department of Justice (DOJ) officials for him to sign – did not set off “alarm bells” in his head. Yep said “it didn’t cross my mind at the time,” calling it “an error on my part for not catching that”.

In his initial questioning by crown counsel John Gibb-Carsley, representing US interests in the case, Yep said the only reason it fell on him to arrest Meng – a momentous event that sent China’s relations with the US and Canada into a two-year downward spiral – was because the RCMP was short-staffed that Friday afternoon. He happened to be heading to the DOJ office on another task when the pre-arrest affidavit needed to be signed.

Beijing was infuriated by Meng’s treatment and subsequently arrested Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, accusing them of spying. In Canada, their situation is widely seen as hostage-taking.

The border officers who questioned Meng and seized her devices before handing her off to Yep are also expected to be called as witnesses this week.

Meng is under partial house arrest in Vancouver, living in one of her two homes in the city. Her extradition proceedings are scheduled to last well into next year, but appeals could drag out the process for much longer.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Ukraine Declares De Facto War on Hungary and Slovakia with Terror Drone Strikes on Their Gas Lifeline
Animated K-pop Musical ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Becomes Netflix’s Most-Watched Original Animated Film
New York Appeals Court Voids Nearly $500 Million Civil Fraud Penalty Against Trump While Upholding Fraud Liability
Elon Musk tweeted, “Europe is dying”
Far-Right Activist Convicted of Incitement Changes Gender and Demands: "Send Me to a Women’s Prison" | The Storm in Germany
Hungary Criticizes Ukraine: "Violating Our Sovereignty"
Will this be the first country to return to negative interest rates?
Child-free hotels spark controversy
North Korea is where this 95-year-old wants to die. South Korea won’t let him go. Is this our ally or a human rights enemy?
Hong Kong Launches Regulatory Regime and Trials for HKD-Backed Stablecoins
China rehearses September 3 Victory Day parade as imagery points to ‘loyal wingman’ FH-97 family presence
Trump Called Viktor Orbán: "Why Are You Using the Veto"
Horror in the Skies: Plane Engine Exploded, Passengers Sent Farewell Messages
MSNBC Rebrands as MS NOW Amid Comcast’s Cable Spin-Off
AI in Policing: Draft One Helps Speed Up Reports but Raises Legal and Ethical Concerns
Shame in Norway: Crown Princess’s Son Accused of Four Rapes
Apple Begins Simultaneous iPhone 17 Production in India and China
A Robot to Give Birth: The Chinese Announcement That Shakes the World
Finnish MP Dies by Suicide in Parliament Building
Outrage in the Tennis World After Jannik Sinner’s Withdrawal Storm
William and Kate Are Moving House – and the New Neighbors Were Evicted
Class Action Lawsuit Against Volkswagen: Steering Wheel Switches Cause Accidents
Taylor Swift on the Way to the Super Bowl? All the Clues Stirring Up Fans
Dogfights in the Skies: Airbus on Track to Overtake Boeing and Claim Aviation Supremacy
Tim Cook Promises an AI Revolution at Apple: "One of the Most Significant Technologies of Our Generation"
Apple Expands Social Media Presence in China With RedNote Account Ahead of iPhone 17 Launch
Are AI Data Centres the Infrastructure of the Future or the Next Crisis?
Cambridge Dictionary Adds 'Skibidi,' 'Delulu,' and 'Tradwife' Amid Surge of Online Slang
Bill Barr Testifies No Evidence Implicated Trump in Epstein Case; DOJ Set to Release Records
Zelenskyy Returns to White House Flanked by European Allies as Trump Pressures Land-Swap Deal with Putin
The CEO Who Replaced 80% of Employees for the AI Revolution: "I Would Do It Again"
Emails Worth Billions: How Airlines Generate Huge Profits
Character.ai Bets on Future of AI Companionship
China Ramps Up Tax Crackdown on Overseas Investments
Japanese Office Furniture Maker Expands into Bomb Shelter Market
Intel Shares Surge on Possible U.S. Government Investment
Hurricane Erin Threatens U.S. East Coast with Dangerous Surf
EU Blocks Trade Statement Over Digital Rule Dispute
EU Sends Record Aid as Spain Battles Wildfires
JPMorgan Plans New Canary Wharf Tower
Zelenskyy and his allies say they will press Trump on security guarantees
Beijing is moving into gold and other assets, diversifying away from the dollar
Escalating Clashes in Serbia as Anti-Government Protests Spread Nationwide
The Drought in Britain and the Strange Request from the Government to Delete Old Emails
Category 5 Hurricane in the Caribbean: 'Catastrophic Storm' with Winds of 255 km/h
"No, Thanks": The Mathematical Genius Who Turned Down 1.5 Billion Dollars from Zuckerberg
The surprising hero, the ugly incident, and the criticism despite victory: "Liverpool’s defense exposed in full"
Digital Humans Move Beyond Sci-Fi: From Virtual DJs to AI Customer Agents
YouTube will start using AI to guess your age. If it’s wrong, you’ll have to prove it
Jellyfish Swarm Triggers Shutdown at Gravelines Nuclear Power Station in Northern France
×