New Zealand mosque gunman seeks fresh trial seven years after killing 51 worshippers
By Sabiu Abdullahi
A white supremacist convicted over the killing of 51 Muslim worshippers at two mosques in New Zealand has asked a court to overturn his conviction, claiming he was not mentally stable when he entered his guilty pleas.
Brenton Tarrant, 35, appeared before a court in Wellington through a video link on Monday. He testified in support of his request to withdraw his guilty pleas and face a full trial.
The Australian national carried out the attacks in Christchurch in March 2019 during Friday prayers. The incident remains the deadliest mass shooting in New Zealand’s history. He attacked worshippers at two mosques with military-style semi-automatic rifles and broadcast the assault live on Facebook using a head-mounted camera.
Tarrant had first denied the charges and prepared for trial. He later changed his position and pleaded guilty to 51 counts of murder, 40 counts of attempted murder, and one charge of committing a terrorist act.
He told the court that prison conditions affected his mental state while he awaited trial. He argued that he was not in the right frame of mind to make legal decisions at the time.
“I did not have the mind frame or mental health required to be making informed decisions at that time,” Tarrant said.
“I think the issue is, did I really know what I wanted to do or what would be a good idea? No, I didn’t actually … I was making choices, but they were not choices made voluntarily and they were not choices made rationally due to the (prison) conditions.”
Court records indicate that the Court of Appeal will determine whether he lacked the capacity to make rational decisions when he entered the pleas, allegedly due to imprisonment conditions he described as torturous and inhumane.
Tarrant is currently serving life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. The sentence marked the first time such a punishment was imposed in New Zealand.
The appeal hearing is scheduled to last five days and is expected to conclude on Friday. If the court refuses his application, another hearing later in the year will examine his sentence. If the conviction is overturned, the case will return to the High Court for trial.
Families of some victims attended the Wellington court session and watched proceedings that lasted several hours.
“It’s really annoying because he’s trying to play with all of us and this is, it’s just a waste of our time and waste of taxpayers money and he just wants to play with us,” Rashid Omar, whose son Tariq died in the attack, told state broadcaster TVNZ.
Following the 2019 massacre, New Zealand authorities moved to tighten national gun laws in response to the tragedy.