The witness testimony section of the Meng Wanzhou extradition hearings continued Monday, with defence lawyer Richard Peck cross-examining RCMP officer Ross Lundie on his role of assisting the FBI on the coordination of Meng’s arrest in 2018.
Lundie, the police officer posted at Vancouver International Airport at that time, said he has had contact with various law enforcement agencies throughout his career – and may have answered questions from the FBI on the Meng case’s operations.
However, the officer emphasized that such contact was coincidental – that his main role was to serve the RCMP and assist in the operations of the police’s central financial crimes unit.
“My function is to serve the RCMP,” Lundie said in court, pushing back on Peck’s assertion that the officer worked a dual role of assisting the police an acting as a liaison to the FBI on the case.
“I wouldn’t call it a dual role... Could I have answered some questions? Yes. But I work for the RCMP.”
Peck, however, pointed to a number of emails sent by the RCMP financial crimes unit indicating that Lundie was the key contact for the FBI.
“I didn’t imply that you asked for the role,” Peck said. “But you were identified by another officer as being good for the role. You’ve had experience contacting the various law enforcement agencies... You are familiar with CBSA [Canada Border Services Agency] processes.”
“My role is to assist,” Lundie replied. “If you call me, I will assist... It should have been the [financial crimes unit] keeping contact with agencies like the FBI.”
“But you did it!” Peck fired back. “... You took it upon yourself to make sure – quote – ‘things went smoothly.’ Someone did ask you to be a point of contact. For the FBI.”
The hearings continue this afternoon.
Much of the attention on the case over the weekend centred around a Wall Street Journal report that U.S. authorities and the lawyers of Meng – CFO of Chinese telecom giant Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. - are discussing a plea deal that would allow the tech executive to return to China in exchange for admitting guilt in fraud and money laundering charges.
There were no indication from the court hearings Monday that there may be movement on that front, as no mentions were made by Crown counsel that the requesting state (the United States) may rescind its extradition request.
