VANCOUVER — A lawyer for Canada's attorney general says RCMP did not need a search warrant to obtain the electronic devices of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou or collect their serial numbers. 

John Gibb-Carsley told the B.C. Supreme Court Meng's charter rights weren't violated because her devices were seized as part of her arrest and the recording of the serial numbers days later was an extension of that. 

Gibb-Carsley made the comments in response to claims from Meng's legal team that the electronic serial numbers were improperly obtained because they were collected through a new search that required judicial authorization. 

It's one of several ways they say Meng was subjected to an abuse of process surrounding her arrest at Vancouver's airport in 2018.

She is wanted in the United States on fraud charges that both she and Huawei deny.

Meng's team says the abuse is so egregious that proceedings in her extradition case should be stayed. 

"The collection of electronic serial numbers was a logical and necessary continuation" of the airport search, Gibb-Carsley says. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 26, 2021.

The Canadian Press