KUALA LUMPUR – The Malaysian man facing a terrorism trial in Guantanamo Bay over his involvement in the 2002 Bali bombings wants his August arraignment to be annulled on a number of “distinct and independent bases”.
A motion filed by Mohammed Nazir Lep’s defence counsel last month claimed that the proceedings were fatally defective as the defendant “was present in body only, not in mind”, and that he was never truly arraigned as the processions to trial was unauthorised.
As such, Nazir has requested for a new arraignment to be conducted in a speedy and fair trial.
In the September 14 motion, Nazir’s lead counsel Brian Bouffard accused the United States government of failing to secure a competent Malay interpreter to provide real-time translation of the proceedings in the only language his client understood.
“The transcript from this hearing is replete with evidence that (Nazir) did not reliably understand what was being said by the military judge or by anyone else in the courtroom.”
As a result of this, Bouffard said his client was forced to listen to another interpreter speaking Indonesian, which is not his native language.
“(Nazir) was only able to comprehend approximately 70% of what was said,” he said, adding that the translation was fatally compromised by the bias of the interpreter who had only last year questioned the US government’s decision to ‘waste money on these terrorists’, and that ‘they should have been killed a long time ago’.
To compound these errors, Bouffard said Nazir was denied by the government proper attorney-client communications during the arraignment.
“These ethical and procedural concerns were validated when, on the morning of August 30, 2021, after nearly two decades awaiting his first day in court, (Nazir) saw a former interpreter – with whom he had previously had confidential communications – sitting next to the lead prosecutor at the government’s table.
“The government knew or should have known about this conflict, but proceeded to utilise that interpreter anyway.”
Bouffard added that if a new arraignment is held, Nazir must be entitled to have the proceedings translated into Malay by a competent, disinterested interpreter, be afforded the right to consult with his counsel, and be able to participate meaningfully in the proceedings.
Nazir and two others – fellow Malaysian Mohammed Farik Amin and Indonesian Encep Nurjaman, or Hambali – attended their arraignment on August 30 and 31 at the Guantanamo Bay military prison, where none of them entered a plea.
Much of the two-day proceeding saw defence lawyers expressing frustration and doubt about the fairness of the arraignment, particularly on the impartiality of translators provided to the defendants.
Military judge Commander Hayes Larsen ended the proceedings without setting a date for the trial to continue following the defence teams’ decisions not to enter a plea.
The arraignment was the first time the three suspects have appeared in court since they were arrested in Thailand in 2003. The trio were initially sent to secret CIA-operated black sites before being moved to Guantanamo Bay in 2006.
They are among just 39 inmates left at the prison inside the US Navy base, which had housed close to 800 terrorist suspects at the height of the US war on terror. – The Vibes, October 18, 2021
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