The first hearing in Julian Assange’s lawsuit against Ecuador’s Foreign Affairs Ministry had to be suspended because the WikiLeaks founder was unable to understand his translator, and the judge called for a replacement fluent in “Australian.”
Assange complained that the court-appointed translator was “not good enough”, the Sydney Morning Herald has reports . Judge Karina Martinez explained that Assange needed to testify, and said “the court had erred by appointing a translator who only spoke English”.
…How difficult are we to understand, exactly? I always thought other English understood me just fine but what if I was wrong all along? Or is Julian Assange’s accent particularly strong? Was he talking in Down Under slang? I have so many questions.
Assange filed his lawsuit last week, arguing that the new rules being imposed on him were violating his constitutional rights. Those rules require him to avoid commenting on politics, and get any approval for visitors from the embassy three working days in advance.
The Embassy has also restricted his internet access and required that he pay his own medical and phone bills. They also asked that he clean up after his pet cat. Assange has described these conditions as “inhumane”.
Ecuador has been housing Assange at the embassy since 2012, after Sweden sought his extradition over allegations of rape and molestation. And the UK police have been watching and waiting for him to leave the building ever since.
Ecuador’s foreign minister, José Valencia, who is named in the lawsuit, told Reuters that he was “frustrated” by Assange’s lawsuit, and said Ecuador would no longer intervene on his behalf in talks with Britain about his situation.
I just hope that someone is looking after the cat in all of this. Poor kitty can’t clean up his own poop.
?Mmmm! Can't decide which is more tasty – bird beginning with C ? or maybe bird beginning with T?! #thanksgiving ?? pic.twitter.com/3j9Vn2nkmW
— Embassy Cat (@EmbassyCat) November 24, 2016