Montreux (Switzerland) (AFP)
The Chinese swimmer Sun Yang's hearing before the Court of Arbitration for Sport, where he is accused of destroying a blood sample with a hammer and risk up to 8 years suspension, was disturbed Friday by translation problems, said an AFP journalist.
On several occasions, while Sun was being questioned at the beginning of the hearing, the lawyers of the various parties and the three judges-abriders had to rest their questions.
Sun spoke in Chinese while the questions were asked in English. His answers were then translated into English by two interpreters.
"The interpreter did not translate. (Sun) does not understand," Ian Meakin, one of Sun's attorneys, said several times.
To a question from a lawyer from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the interpreter then translated into Chinese "200 ml of blood" instead of "200 times".
"If you want him (Sun) to answer the question, the translation must be correct," said the swimmer's lawyer.
The chairperson of the three-judge panel then made a public apology for the translation problems.
The debates before the CAS are generally held in English "but we sometimes use interpeters when witnesses do not speak English", explained in the margins of the hearing Matthieu Reeb, Secretary General of the CAS.
"The interpreters are appointed by the parties and not by the CAS so we have no control over the quality of the interpreting services," he added.
"For example, the Chinese interpreters were chosen by the Sun Yang team, translation problems slow down the procedure (...) The witnesses have to repeat their answers or the questions.This is probably not in the interests of the parties and not in the interest of justice, "Reeb said.
© 2019 AFP