A US military court where two Malaysians and an Indonesian are facing terrorism charges over deadly bombings in Indonesia in 2002 and 2003 has agreed to change the suspects' court interpreters.
According to a news report, this came after the suspects opposed the use of earlier court interpreters whom they claimed were biased and incompetent.
The suspects (above) are Malaysians Mohammed Nazir Lep and Mohammed Farik Amin, and Indonesian Encep Nurjaman, who is also known as Hambali.
The court set in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba had to rely on interpreters to translate Malay and Indonesian languages for communication with the suspects.
Nazir, Farik and Encep reportedly refused to enter a plea when they were charged with eight counts of offences in August last year, citing that the translators' bias and incompetence have led to inaccurate translations.
According to Free Malaysia Today, the court in its decision last week ordered the US government to submit an updated interpreter support plan by February for the hearing, which has been scheduled to be held from Feb 28 until March 4.
"This plan will identify at least two interpreters for each language and who will be available to support the court during the hearing either from Naval Station Guantanamo Bay or remotely from a location in the national capital," military judge Hayes C Larsen said, as quoted by the news portal.
The judge also ordered the US government to identify two new interpreters for each language, after the latter proposed the same Malaysian interpreter it had used before.
"This is inadequate and, therefore, the government will identify two interpreters per language for future hearings," he said.
Lawyer Brian Bouffard who acted for Nazir reportedly spoke to the news portal where he described the development as a "minor victory by itself".
The three suspects are facing eight charges - conspiracy, murder, attempted murder, intentionally causing serious bodily injury, terrorism, attacking civilians, attacking civilian objects, and destruction of property - related to twin bombings in Bali, Indonesia in October 2002 and another bombing at the JW Marriot Hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia in August 2003. - Mkini
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