The names and identities of the interpreter, the accused and witnesses have all been suppressed until a verdict has been reached.
A ‘Kiwi Base’ in Afghanistan
The interpreter said he began working for the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) in 2010, translating local dialects for their reconstruction team.
He lived on the “Kiwi Base” in the Bamyan Province and assisted the team as it restored villages and helped people “getting on with their lives” in the wake of the US-led invasion in 2001.
By 2013, the situation with the Taliban had gotten “way worse” as the Islamic fundamentalist and nationalist group resurged across the country, he said.
The Taliban had worked out how to better use homemade bombs to wipe out opposing military vehicles and at the same time, their infiltration of the Afghanistan Government was escalating.
The NZDF told the interpreter in 2012 that the base would be shutting down, and the interpreters were given two choices for their future.
Either they would be given a “large sum of money” from the NZDF or they could relocate to live in New Zealand.
All of the 30 interpreters chose to leave Afghanistan with their families to live in New Zealand.
The interpreter told the court that he feared if he stayed, he would be killed, or worse, by the Taliban.
An arranged marriage
When he had an interview with an immigration officer on the base to discuss relocating, the interpreter told the officer he was single.
This was true at the time, but when the interpreter told his mother he would be moving away, she suggested he meet a woman from a neighbouring province that she wished him to marry.
He claimed he told Defence Force members on the base of his plans to visit the woman he could marry.
He said they told him to go, “see how it goes” and that it “should be fine” to bring his new wife with him to New Zealand.
“There were no issues at that point.”
He went and met his potential wife, they spoke for an hour, found an instant connection and were wed.
When he returned from his wedding, he said the NZDF members held a different view.
They said he couldn’t bring his new wife with him as he had declared himself single during his immigration interview.
Destroyed and disappointed
Feeling destroyed and disappointed, the interpreter came up with a plan to approach the Minister of Defence, during the minister’s visit to the base, and plea for his wife’s amnesty.
He said he stayed up all night writing letters to the NZDF members who had denied his pleas, flagging that he intended to approach the minister.
The month of the wedding or the next, he found the accused having a cigarette and gave him one of the letters.
The accused reportedly snatched the letter away and both men walked off.
When the interpreter was later walking across the base, he said the accused pulled him aside angrily.
He argued there would be media present at the minister’s visit and there was an election in New Zealand that year.
For those reasons, the interpreter could not ask the minister for help with his wife and would lose his job if he tried.
They began to argue until he said the NZDF member threatened to have him blacklisted and killed and said there was nothing he or his family could do about it.
The interpreter was sure of the words used as they were stuck in his mind.
“I can’t get rid of them.”
Standing over him and ‘very angry’
He said the NZDF member was “very angry”.
“He’s a big dude,” he told the court martial.
“He was standing over me, I was only 21 years old, his face was going red, his hands were to the side, his chest was puffed up.”
When Crown lawyer Henry Steele asked how the interpreter felt when he heard the threat, the interpreter said sorry, paused and took a few breaths.
The interpreter told Steele he made strong, lasting connections with the New Zealand soldiers he worked with then.
“I picked up [their] bodies off the ground.
“I was one of them.”
He said after the threat, he burst into tears.
“Just standing there, head down, crying with blurry eyes.
“That’s how it happened.
“And he just stood there and watched me cry.”
The defence
In his opening statement, the accused’s lawyer Matthew Hague addressed the panel of military members, similar to a jury, that will decide his client’s fate.
He said the accused was innocent until proven guilty and the interpreter’s version of events was just an allegation, not evidence.
He repeated something Judge Kevin Riordan had told the panel, that “it’s not the court’s job to solve a mystery”.
The prosecution’s evidence was only one side and that side’s purpose was to prove the charges.
The court martial adjourned for morning tea and there was a power cut on the naval base.
The hearing resumed in the afternoon and will continue tomorrow with three witnesses, including the interpreter’s wife.
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 currently based in Auckland covering justice related stories.
