A court-martial continues at Auckland's Devonport Naval Base, where a member of the New Zealand Defence Force is accused of threatening to kill an interpreter in Afghanistan. Photo / John Weekes
An interpreter claiming a New Zealand Defence Force member threatened to have him killed in Afghanistan says the Kiwi serviceman had the connections and influence to do so.
He has accused the serviceman of threatening to have him killed if he tried to approach the Minister of Defence about bringing his new wife to New Zealand.
When asked by Crown lawyer Henry Steele if he believed the accused was capable of following through on that threat, the interpreter said he was.
The defence has, in turn, accused the interpreter of later making up the threat to get his wife off his back about bringing her family to live in New Zealand.
That evidence was given yesterday afternoon at a court-martial at Auckland’s Devonport Naval Base, where the serviceman is defending the charge.
The court-martial continues today with more witnesses.
The court-martial heard from the interpreter that in 2013 the “Kiwi base” he was working on was being shut down as New Zealand was pulling out of Afghanistan.
The Afghan interpreter had accepted an offer from the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) to relocate to New Zealand to protect him from the rising Taliban influence in Afghanistan.
He was single at the time of his immigration interview. He quickly married but was denied bringing his new wife to New Zealand by the NZDF.
Frustrated, he indicated to the accused NZDF member he planned to make a plea for his wife to the Minister of Defence, who was set to visit the base.
The interpreter claims the NZDF member then threatened to have him killed.
“He said, ‘If you try to speak to the Minister of Defence, we will talk to your Government to blacklist you and have you killed’,” he recalled. “‘And you and your family can’t do anything about it’.”
Steele asked the interpreter if he thought the NZDF member was capable of having him killed.
“Did you think that was something he was capable of, a man of his position, blacklisting you and having you killed?”
The interpreter responded yes, explaining that before the threat, the interpreter had been involved in NZDF missions leading to the capture of Taliban leaders.
“I was also involved in releasing them without any consequences,” he claimed.
After the threat, the interpreter said the accused told him to leave the base for four days - a period of time he suspected was made so he would miss a visit from the minister.
Dazed, the interpreter wandered back to the interpreters’ barracks when the accused again came up to him.
“He approached me from behind saying ‘You need to pack your stuff to leave now’,” the interpreter alleged.
The interpreter was not a native to Bamiyan, but had some friends with whom he could stay in the province.
Steele highlighted that the “security situation” was heightened at the time, and living off base meant the interpreter was less protected.
When the interpreter returned to the base, he said things carried on as if nothing had happened and around Anzac Day he began his journey to New Zealand without his wife.
The interpreter reported that he managed to bring his wife over about a year after he arrived in New Zealand.
He claimed to have confided in no one about the threat to his life out of fear.
During that time in New Zealand, he said all the interpreters were trying to bring more of their family members over from Afghanistan.
It was only then, when his wife began questioning why they couldn’t bring her family over, that he told her about the threat.
Defence lawyer Matthew Hague suggested the interpreter had made up the threat to get his wife off his back.
“It was a lie that you made up because you were under pressure from your wife, wasn’t it?” Hague asked.
“No, sir, it was not,” the interpreter replied.
This morning, Steele read out a Military Police statement from the accused from three years ago.
The statement said the interpreter was booted off the base for four days because his work ethic had deteriorated.
It said after learning that his wife couldn’t immigrate, the interpreter had become adjusted, agitated and “unusable” in his role.
The interpreter did not “take kindly” to being kicked off the base and saw it as a “punishment”.
At no time did he use threatening behaviour against [the complainant], the accused’s statement said.
The interpreter’s wife took the stand this afternoon, assisted by an interpreter.
She told the court about eventually immigrating to New Zealand in 2014.
She said it was only a few years later, in 2017, when she was trying to get her own family over, that the interpreter told her about the alleged threat on his life.
“I put to him lots of questions, I ask him why he didn’t bring me with him,” she said.
That is when he mentioned the threat, she said.
Again, Hague suggested the interpreter had lied to stop his wife from hassling him about bringing her family over.
“You were both under lots of stress about the situation, weren’t you?” Hague asked.
“Yes,” the interpreter’s wife replied.
“It was so upsetting that your marriage was about to fall apart,” he continued.
“Yes, because we are a culture of family together,” she said.
“[The interpreter] did not tell you his claim about a threat was a lie, did he?” Hague challenged.
“[The interpreter] is not a liar,” she stated.
She claimed she wouldn’t be upset if her husband told her he was lying.
Then the panel of military members, similar to a jury, had some questions for the interpreter’s wife.
A military member asked if the interpreter’s wife knew why her husband made a complaint some 10 years after the threat was made.
She said her husband was after justice and if he hadn’t done anything about it, she would have.
Hague interjected.
“Are you saying that you told [the interpreter] if you don’t seek justice I will?” he asked.
“At the beginning [he] was too frightened to talk about this issue,” she replied.
She had helped him in doing so, she said.
The court-martial continues.
Ella Scott-Fleming has been a journalist for three years and previously worked at the Otago Daily Times, Gore Ensign and Metro Magazine. She has an interest in court and general reporting. She’s based in Auckland covering justice-related stories.