Politics played no role in Huawei exec’s arrest – Trudeau

Montreal, Canada | AFP |  Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday that politics played no part in the arrest of a top executive of Chinese tech giant Huawei, who was detained on a US extradition request.

“I can assure everyone that we are a country (with) an independent judiciary,” Trudeau told a tech conference in Montreal. “And they took this decision without any political involvement or interference.”

The prime minister declined to comment further on the case, citing a court-ordered publication ban sought by Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou, arrested at the request of US authorities as she was changing planes in Vancouver.

Earlier, Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan also stressed that Canadian police agencies “work independently” of the government.

“We have a good judicial process in regards to the next steps. It’ll take it’s course,” he added, dismissing concerns of a diplomat row with Beijing over the arrest.

Canada’s cyber security chief, however, said Ottawa was prepared for any possible retaliatory cyber attacks over the arrest.

“I think one of the key things is that we always have to be resilient no matter what the possible trigger could be,” Scott Jones, director of the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security, told a press conference.

Jones happened to be presenting his office’s first report on cyber security threats assessment.

Meng Wanzhou is scheduled to appear in court on Friday for a bail hearing.

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