Brenton Tarrant, who was accused of killing 51
people in New Zealand’s Christchurch mosques attack has been charged with
terrorism, police have said.
The Australian was charged with “engaging in a terrorist act”,
police said in a statement on May 21.
Brenton Tarrant is already facing charges of murder and 40 of attempted
murder following the 15th of March attack on two mosques in the
South Island city.
He is next due in court in June.
It is the first time a person has been charged in New Zealand with an act of
terror under this law.
New Zealand Police – who met with victims’ families and other survivors to
inform them of the charge before it was announced – said they consulted with
legal experts and prosecutors before deciding to lay the additional charge.
On March 15, 50 people lost their lives in the shootings at
two mosques in Christchurch. One died in hospital later.
The Christchurch attack was New Zealand’s deadliest mass shooting and brought
an outpouring grief and support for the victims and their families.
Two weeks after the attack, more than 20,000 people gathered for a memorial
service to honor those who lost their lives.
Last month, New Zealand’s parliament voted to ban military-style
semi-automatic weapons to prevent any such thing happening again.
New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is spearheading an effort to get
world’s governments and tech companies to improve their efforts to tackle
extremist content online.
The “Christchurch Call” was launched in response to the suspect
live-streaming the attack, which was then watched many thousands of times.
The call has already been backed by Australia, India, Germany and Sweden, as
well as tech giants Google, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft and Twitter. However,
the US declined to take part.
49 people have been killed and other 48 wounded
in shootings at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, in the country’s
deadliest attack.
New Zealand’s PM Jacinda Ardern described it as a terrorist attack and one
of the country’s “darkest days”.
A gunman identifying himself as an Australian live-streamed the rampage at
Al Noor mosque to Facebook. He had espoused racist, anti-immigrant views.
According to police, a man in his late 20s has been arrested and charged
with murder.
Two other men and one woman were also detained.
No names have been made public. Firearms and explosive devices were
recovered, Police Commissioner Mike Bush said.
The gunman live-streaming the attack from a head-mounted camera said he was
a 28-year-old Australian called Brenton Tarrant. The footage showed him firing
at men, women and children from close range inside the Al Noor mosque.
Facebook had removed the suspect’s Facebook and Instagram accounts and was
working to remove any copies of the footage. The live-stream of the attack
lasted for 17 minutes.
The suspect who was charged appeared to have published a document online
outlining his intentions as well as details about the plan for the attack. He
is due in court on March 16.
Australian PM Scott Morrison described the man as an “extremist,
right-wing” terrorist. New Zealand Police Commissioner Bush confirmed that
the man had not been known in advance to either New Zealand or Australian
security services.
The first report of an attack came from the Al Noor mosque in central
Christchurch at 13:40 on March 15.
A gunman drove to the front door, entered and fired indiscriminately for
about five minutes.
One unnamed survivor told TV New
Zealand that he had seen the gunman shoot a man in the chest. The attacker
reportedly targeted the men’s prayer room in the mosque, then moved to the
women’s room.
The gunman is then said to have driven about 3 miles to another mosque in
the suburb of Linwood where the second shooting occurred.
One witness described how one of the worshippers had managed to disarm the
man, who ran to a waiting car outside.
It is not clear where the arrests were made. Police also defused “a
number of IEDs [improvised explosive devices] attached to vehicles”, Police
Commissioner Mike Bush said.
He said a number of firearms had been recovered from both mosques, and
explosive devices were found in a car belonging to one of the suspects.
Authorities advised all mosques in Christchurch to shut down until further
notice.
According to the latest census
figures, Muslims make up about 1.1% of New Zealand’s population of 4.25
million.
Numbers rose sharply as New Zealand
took in refugees from various war-torn countries since the 1990s.
Social media accounts in the name of
Brenton Tarrant were used to post a lengthy, racist document in which the
author identified the mosques that were later attacked.
The man says he began planning an
attack after visiting Europe in 2017 and being angered by events there.
The document is called “The
Great Replacement” – a phrase that originated in France and has become a
rallying cry for European anti-immigration extremists.
Although New Zealand police said they had charged a man in his late 20s with murder, they did not identify the man.
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