Assange Hearing Halted to Find Translator Fluent in ‘Australian'
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The first hearing in Julian Assange’s lawsuit against Ecuador’s Foreign Affairs Ministry was suspended as the WikiLeaks founder was unable to understand his translator, and the judge called for a replacement fluent in “Australian.”
Speaking from Ecuador’s Embassy in London via Skype, Assange said the court-appointed translation service was “not good enough.” Judge Karina Martinez said that it was indispensable that Assange testify, and said the court had erred by appointing a translator who only spoke English, apparently under the impression that Australian dialect is unintelligible to other anglophones.