Around New England

Lawyer: Burma Man Accused on Groping Two Young Girls Can’t Stand Trial Because He Doesn’t Speak English

October 21, 2017

A defense lawyer has asked a judge in Nashua, New Hampshire to declare his 27-year-old client incompetent to stand trial on charges of inappropriately touching a 7-year-old girl and a 10-year-old girl because the difficulties the lawyer is having communicating with the man, who speaks Rohingya, a minority language in Burma (which is also known as Myanmar). The prosecutor isn’t convinced:  “The defendant’s history of the Rohingya people, while interesting, does not seem particularly relevant, as surely he is not suggesting that his status as a member of an oppressed people’s diaspora gives him any license to grope young children.”