Odessablog's Blog

For those of you who didn’t know, Sir John Walsh has been attending the Tymoshenko trial.

Given that the trial is being held in Ukrainian and Russian language, depending upon who is speaking at any particular time, have a look at this video and work out for yourself how much Sir John understands in real time what is being said around him.

As he has no interpreter for the press conference, does he have one inside the courtroom? Probably not as an interpreter talking over the witnesses or judge, prosecutors or defence would be an intolerable situation for all those in the courtroom and also for the interpreter trying to keep up with half a dozen people often talking at the same time over each other.

As he and his team get transcripts of what is said, why is he actually there and not a cheaper member of his team. After all, if you don’t understand what is being said, a physical presence there is surely to watch to ensure the thumb-screws are not being applied and little more in “real time”.

All that said, it is a positive thing that there are international observers sitting in on the trial. One imagines that there will be an EU mission employee present each day as well as several other interested parties be they official or NGO.

Even so, you can tell that when the journalists are asking him questions, the lights are on but nobody is home without an interpreter. I remember those days all to well when I first arrived and was fairly clueless to what was being said around me. You feel like a fish out of water. So where is his interpreter? You can hardly meet the press and give the impression of a professsional representing a competent NGO without one as it becomes quite clear you have no idea what is happening inside the courtroom without one either.

A rather shambolic incident really. Two if you count the trial as well.