9.Muna Shishani — Direct/Cross
132 linesMUNA SHISHANI, duly sworn
COURT CLERK: Have a seat. State your name, spell your last name for the record, keep your voice up and speak into the mic so everyone can hear you.
MUNA SHISHANI: My name is Muna Shishani. My last name is S-H-I-S-H-A-N-I.
DIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. CHAKRAVARTY:
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Good afternoon.
MUNA SHISHANI: Hello.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: I'm over here, Ms. Shishani. Sorry.
MUNA SHISHANI: Oh.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Ms. Shishani, are you a language specialist at the FBI?
MUNA SHISHANI: Yes, correct.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: And what languages do you translate?
MUNA SHISHANI: I translate Chechen and Arabic.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: And are you Chechen by ancestry?
MUNA SHISHANI: Yes, I am.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: And "Chechen" means somebody who's ethnically from the region of Chechnya?
MUNA SHISHANI: Correct.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: And you said you also speak Arabic?
MUNA SHISHANI: Yes, I do.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Do all Chechens speak Arabic?
MUNA SHISHANI: All Chechens? No, not all Chechens.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: But you grew up in an Arabic-speaking country and you learned Arabic?
MUNA SHISHANI: Correct.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Are you fluent in Arabic?
MUNA SHISHANI: Yes, I am.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Are you fluent in Chechen?
MUNA SHISHANI: Yes, I am.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: And are you fluent in English?
MUNA SHISHANI: Yes, I am.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: When you became a language specialist did you, like other linguists, go through a battery of competency tests?
MUNA SHISHANI: Correct.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: And did you pass those?
MUNA SHISHANI: Correct.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: And are you certified to translate in Chechen and Arabic?
MUNA SHISHANI: Yes, I am.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: And with regards to your Chechen background -- in fact, "Shishani" means "Chechen." Is that correct?
MUNA SHISHANI: In the Arabic language, yes, "Shishani" means "Chechen."
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Now, does -- Chechen last names, are they in -- when in Russia, are they spelled the same as they are within the Chechen community?
MUNA SHISHANI: I know Chechen last names in official documents in Russia, the "aev" or "ev" added at the end, some are for the last -- on the official documents, that's what's added on the Chechens' last names in Russia.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: But among Chechens there's a --
MUNA SHISHANI: It's not added. Yeah, we don't add the "aev" or the "ev" at the end. Yeah, we just keep that amongst us, just the last name itself without the addition.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Of the aev or the --
MUNA SHISHANI: The aev or the ev.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: I'm going to call up 1170 just as a demonstrative. Page 2, please.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Just to illustrate this point, these records, this name is Tamerlan Tsarnaev. Is that correct?
MUNA SHISHANI: Yes.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: And could we go to page 3?
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: And this account name is Dzhokhar Tsarni. Are those names the same?
MUNA SHISHANI: They are the same. The way it's said in Chechen would be "Tsarni," and "Tsarnaev," the "aev" is added to -- it's the Russian addition on the Russian official documents that sometimes they add that to Chechen last names. But amongst us, we would call -- we would say "Tsarni" if it's just Chechen. Amongst Chechens it would be just "Tsarni."
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Now, for purposes of this case, were you asked to review any documents that may have had Chechen in them --
MUNA SHISHANI: Yes.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: -- for purposes of the trial?
MUNA SHISHANI: Yes.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: And did you find any such documents?
MUNA SHISHANI: Any Chechen documents? There's some Chechen words. Yeah, some.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: So are Chechen words -- what script are Chechen words written in?
MUNA SHISHANI: In Cyrillic.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: So is that the same script that Russian is written in?
MUNA SHISHANI: Correct.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: And to the extent that there was a Chechen word here or there on any document, did you provide a fair -- or did you verify that the translation of that word was fair and accurate?
MUNA SHISHANI: Correct. And it gets reviewed also by other linguists, too.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: And with regards to Arabic words, did you partially prepare and also verify completely the accuracy of a list of Arabic words that may be related to this case?
MUNA SHISHANI: Correct.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Okay. I'm going to call up for the witness Exhibit 1407.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Do you recognize this?
MUNA SHISHANI: I can't see it very well.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Maybe I can blow it up a little bit?
MUNA SHISHANI: Yeah.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Just let me -- do you see your name as the reviewer?
MUNA SHISHANI: Yes.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: And then there's a list of a number of words there?
MUNA SHISHANI: Yeah.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: And did you list the Arabic word using English letters on the left, and then on the right the English translation of that word?
MUNA SHISHANI: Yes, correct.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Now, when you do translations, do you do meaning-for-meaning translations?
MUNA SHISHANI: Yes, correct.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: And so if you just see a word in a vacuum, it might not have the full context of what that writing was in, correct?
MUNA SHISHANI: Yes.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: So you did your best just to create essentially a dictionary here?
MUNA SHISHANI: Correct.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: And could we go to page 2?
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: And so this is the rest of those words, that were words that you saw throughout the trial evidence in this case?
MUNA SHISHANI: Correct.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: I would move into evidence Exhibit 1407.
THE COURT: All right.
(Government Exhibit No. 1407 received into evidence.)
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: And if we could go back to page 1.
BY MR. CHAKRAVARTY:
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: And so, again, for --
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: If I can ask to publish, your Honor.
THE COURT: They have it.
BY MR. CHAKRAVARTY:
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: So again this is a document that you reviewed here?
MUNA SHISHANI: Correct.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: And so just as an example, the word "ummah" you translated as "nation," correct?
MUNA SHISHANI: Correct.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Particularly, the "ummah" means the Muslim nation?
MUNA SHISHANI: Yes.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: There's a word that's not on here, but if I can ask you to explain what it means, the word "shaytan," S-H-A-Y-T-A-N. What does that mean?
MUNA SHISHANI: It means in Arabic "satan" or "devil."
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: And is that a word that I did not ask you to translate and put on paper before today?
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: And Ms. Shishani, how long have you worked for the FBI?
MUNA SHISHANI: Almost five years.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: How long have you lived in the United States?
MUNA SHISHANI: For almost 17 years now.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Thank you. That's all I have.
CROSS-EXAMINATION BY MR. FICK:
MUNA SHISHANI: Good afternoon.
MR. FICK: My name is Bill Fick. I'm one of Jahar Tsarnaev's lawyers.
Mr. Chakravarty asked you whether all Chechens speak Arabic, and you responded, of course, no. That's correct, right?
MUNA SHISHANI: Yes.
MR. FICK: But it is fair to say that it's common both in Chechnya and other Muslim- but non-Arabic-speaking countries to sprinkle Arabic words into conversation even if you don't know Arabic, correct?
MUNA SHISHANI: Because the religion is Islam, yes, they do -- they use the Arabic words in the prayer in Arabic because of the religious people, yes.
MR. FICK: Or even non-religious people, right? I mean, it's very common, for example, to say "salamu alaykum," which means "hello," it's a greeting, in a Muslim country even if you don't speak Arabic, correct?
MUNA SHISHANI: Correct.
MR. FICK: -- in the exhibit Mr. Chakravarty just showed you and introduced, you see the word here, "Insha'Allah," for example, right, which essentially means "God willing" or "Allah willing"?
MUNA SHISHANI: Correct.
MR. FICK: That's another word that's very commonly just sprinkled into conversation by people in Muslim countries that don't speak Arabic, right?
MUNA SHISHANI: Correct.
MR. FICK: Similarly, another word down the list here, "alhamdulilah" which is essentially "praise be to God" or like "hallelujah" as an English speaker would say. The same kind of deal, right?
MUNA SHISHANI: Correct.
MR. FICK: So it would be very common for a Chechen speaker to just sprinkle Arabic words like that through their conversation and their writing?
MUNA SHISHANI: Correct.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Nothing, your Honor.
THE COURT: All right, Ms. Shishani. You're excused. Thank you.
MUNA SHISHANI: Thank you.
(The witness is excused.)
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: The government calls Special Agent Heidi Williams.