During a criminal trial for robbery, the court considered whether to conduct a voir dire into the competence of two proposed Amharic interpreters who lacked accreditation under the Ministry of the Attorney General’s new interpreter testing regime.
Both interpreters had failed the Ministry’s English‑only interpreter test and had previously been accredited under an earlier system later found invalid.
The court held that the failed test results demonstrated that the interpreters had not reached the required threshold of competence.
Given the absence of accreditation and the judge’s inability to independently assess Amharic interpretation, the court concluded that a voir dire would serve no useful purpose.
The interpreters were therefore deemed incompetent to act in the trial.
