THE TRIAL of an alleged drug smuggler from Nigeria was postponed on October 7 at the Bratislava I District Court after the person hired to interpret the court's proceedings into the defendant's native language, Igbo, refused do so in court. The interpreter said his refusal was because of “mean people on the internet and journalists who connect him [the interpreter] with this crime”, the TASR newswire reported.
Raymond O., the defendant, had previously asked for interpretation into Igbo after claiming that he did not understand English well enough.
TASR reported that the court proceedings will now continue with English language interpretation. The proceedings are scheduled to begin again on December 13.
The accused Nigerian faces 25 years in prison for an alleged attempt to smuggle as many as 70 capsules of cocaine inside his body, an amount police officers said was enough for 11,000 to 22,000 individual doses worth up to €328,000 on the illegal market.
11. Oct 2010 at 0:00 | Compiled by Spectator staff
