New Zealand mosque shooter given life in prison for 'wicked' crimes

[snoop1130]

New Zealand mosque shooter given life in prison for 'wicked' crimes

By Praveen Menon

 

FILE PHOTO: Brenton Tarrant, the gunman who shot and killed worshippers in the Christchurch mosque attacks, is seen during his sentencing at the High Court in Christchurch, New Zealand, August 25, 2020. John Kirk-Anderson/Pool via REUTERS

 

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - A New Zealand judge sentenced white supremacist Brenton Tarrant to life in prison without parole on Thursday for killing 51 Muslim worshippers in the country's deadliest shooting, saying the sentence was not enough punishment for the "wicked" crimes.

 

It was the first time a court in New Zealand had sentenced a person to prison for the rest of their life.

 

Christchurch High Court Judge Cameron Mander said Tarrant had shown no remorse and that no matter how long he spent in prison it would not be long enough to atone for his crimes.

 

"Your crimes...are so wicked that even if you are detained until you die it will not exhaust the requirements of punishment and denunciation," said the judge in handing down the sentence.

 

"As far as I am able to gauge, you are empty of any empathy for your victims," he said.

 

Tarrant, a 29-year-old Australian, admitted to 51 charges of murder, 40 counts of attempted murder and one charge of committing a terrorist act during the 2019 shooting rampage at two Christchurch mosques which he livestreamed on Facebook.

 

On March 15, 2019 Tarrant stormed the Al Noor mosque in Christchurch armed with military-style semi-automatics, indiscriminately shooting at Muslims gathered for Friday prayers, while filming his massacre from a head-mounted camera and playing a Serbian anti-Muslim anthem.

 

He killed 44 people at Al Noor, the youngest a three-year-old boy shot at point blank range, then attacked a second mosque in the nearby suburb of Linwood, killing another seven people.

 

Judge Mander asked Tarrant before handing down the sentence if he had any comment. Dressed in grey prison clothes and surrounded by guards, Tarrant nodded when asked if he was aware he had the right to make submissions, but he did not speak.

 

NZ MUSLIMS WELCOME JUSTICE

 

"Today the legal procedures for this heinous crime have been done. No punishment will bring our loved ones back," said Gamal Fouda, the imam of Al Noor mosque which was targeted.

 

"Extremists are all the same. Whether they use religion, nationalism or any other ideology. All extremists, they represent hate. But we are here today. We respect love, compassion, Muslim and non-Muslim people of faith and of no faith."

 

Prosecutors said Tarrant had accumulated more than 7,000 rounds of ammunition for the attack and wanted to instill fear in those he described as invaders and that he carefully planned the attacks to cause maximum carnage.

 

"The hatred that lies at the heart of your hostility to particular members of the community that you came to this country to murder has no place here - it has no place anywhere," Mander said.

 

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she was relieved that "that person will never see the light of day".

 

"The trauma of March 15 is not easily healed but today I hope is the last where we have any cause to hear or utter the name of the terrorist behind it. His deserves to be a lifetime of complete and utter silence," she said.

 

The attack led to a ban on firearms in New Zealand and a campaign against hate content online led by Ardern, a response that was hailed as a model for other countries.

 

More than 90 survivors and families of the victims gave emotionally charged statements in court this week calling for Tarrant to be sentenced to life without parole. Many gathered in and outside the court on Thursday to hear the sentence.

 

"It's a relief...We are not in a country where we can expect the death penalty. But they have served justice...giving the maximum prison time without parole," said Hina Amir, 34, who was outside Al Noor mosque when Tarrant attacked and survived a hail of bullets in her car with her husband, Amir Daud.

 

The crime received wide attention around the Muslim world and on Thursday Turkey's foreign ministry noted "with pleasure" that the heaviest available punishment had been applied for an attack which killed one and wounded two Turkish citizens.

 

"The verdict reminded the world once again the need for the international community to fight jointly against all acts and ideologies based on Islamophobia, xenophobia, racism and hatred."

 

DESIRE TO CREATE TERROR

 

Tarrant, who represented himself during the hearings but did not make submissions, said through a lawyer in court on Thursday that he did not oppose the prosecution's application for a life without parole sentence.

 

He asserted in a pre-sentence report that he was not racist or xenophobic, the judge said. Rather, Tarrant said he felt ostracised and had wanted to damage society, and had acted on delusional beliefs.

 

However, state prosecutor Mark Zarifeh had told the court: "The offending was motivated by an entrenched racist and xenophobic ideology and a desire to create terror within the Muslim community and beyond."

 

Before Tarrant, triple-murderer William Bell was serving the longest sentence in New Zealand with a minimum non-parole prison term of 30 years for his 2001 crimes.

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-08-27

 

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[Tug]

Put that (deleted) out in general population just for an hour or two once a month give him a chance to heal up between the beatings and (deleted) just so he suffers for a very long time sorry but thease kind of criminals (of all religions and political leanings) deserve prolonged suffering imo

[saakura]

It was a hate crime against a certain religion, not a wicked crime. I may also have very strong views against the extremists in that religion, but it does not give me the right to go on a mass killing spree. 

[Scott]

Off-topic post removed. 

 

[bert bloggs]

the guy is a piece of sh-t ,but he is just one killer ,there are thousands in their faith . thank goodness we are not like them .

[Dumbastheycome]

I would have no problem in knowing that the life sentence included solitary confinement and no access to social media in any form. Pointless in  providing any efforts in " rehabilitation" or any avenues  of excuse.

He has shown no remorse. Let him appreciate the outcome.

[Tomsi]

11 hours ago, saakura said:

It was a hate crime against a certain religion, not a wicked crime. I may also have very strong views against the extremists in that religion, but it does not give me the right to go on a mass killing spree. 

You understand you are sugar coating the mass murder of 51 innocent people by saying that the killing spree was bad but they (Muslims) are worse?

[Tomsi]

9 hours ago, bert bloggs said:

the guy is a piece of sh-t ,but he is just one killer ,there are thousands in their faith . thank goodness we are not like them .

Yeah, keep being so ignorant ???? why would you justify such horrible horrible murders? 

[bert bloggs]

2 hours ago, Tomsi said:

Yeah, keep being so ignorant ???? why would you justify such horrible horrible murders? 

I did not justify it ,read what i posted , he was evil for what he did ,unfortunatly there seem to be far more evil killers in their faith ,do not twist my words .

[dexterm]

13 hours ago, bert bloggs said:

the guy is a piece of sh-t ,but he is just one killer ,there are thousands in their faith . thank goodness we are not like them .

Dog whistle racism deflection in order to apportion some blame to the innocent victims.

Edited August 28, 2020 by dexterm

[murraynz]

Keeping this animal in prison for the rest of his life,is too good for this animal.

It is costing nz taxpayers huge money to keep him in solitary.

Primitive as it may be...

The death penalty is probably best,but still too good for that mongrel..

He realy needs years of pain and physical and mental suffering..

[rudi49jr]

3 hours ago, phantomfiddler said:

He,s not justifying it, he,s just stating an obvious fact. The Bali bombing was just one of MANY atrocities by muslims against Christians, and they are not going to stop ????

How about the tens of thousands of innocent people (most of them Muslims) killed in Iraq during the American invasion? How about all the innocent victims caused by American drone attacks? The USA alone is responsible for many more deaths of innocent Muslims than vice versa. 
I also noticed that you spelled it muslims and Christians. Was that intentional, or just a slip of the pen? 

[transam]

6 hours ago, Tomsi said:

Yeah, keep being so ignorant ???? why would you justify such horrible horrible murders? 

People that twist stuff, like you, are a major problem that creates problems.........But you are not alone on here in that respect.....????

[bert bloggs]

3 hours ago, rudi49jr said:

How about the tens of thousands of innocent people (most of them Muslims) killed in Iraq during the American invasion? How about all the innocent victims caused by American drone attacks? The USA alone is responsible for many more deaths of innocent Muslims than vice versa. 
I also noticed that you spelled it muslims and Christians. Was that intentional, or just a slip of the pen? 

yes and Germany was responsible for millions of Christian and Jewish  deaths in ww2, then of course there were the Muslim invaders in the middle ages ,,why do you lot always try and deflect ,now is now ,and that is what we are talking about .

[Sujo]

7 hours ago, phantomfiddler said:

He,s not justifying it, he,s just stating an obvious fact. The Bali bombing was just one of MANY atrocities by muslims against Christians, and they are not going to stop ????

which is completely irrelevant to the murder of innocent people regardless of faith.

 

Some posters on here are sounding just as radical as those they despise. Lumping all that follow a religion of condoning what radicals do.

 

They were innocents murdered. How about just saying he deserves what he got and leave it at thst.

 

[bert bloggs]

1 hour ago, Sujo said:

which is completely irrelevant to the murder of innocent people regardless of faith.

 

Some posters on here are sounding just as radical as those they despise. Lumping all that follow a religion of condoning what radicals do.

 

They were innocents murdered. How about just saying he deserves what he got and leave it at thst.

 

He certainly deserves what he got ,unfortunatly there are far far more muslims doing this sort of thing than any other faith ,why are they so aggresive compared to us who have very few evil people like this it seems than the muslim faith have 

Jesus preached love and understanding ,Mohamed death to unbelievers.

[Cryingdick]

On 8/27/2020 at 8:19 AM, Tug said:

Put that (deleted) out in general population just for an hour or two once a month give him a chance to heal up between the beatings and (deleted) just so he suffers for a very long time sorry but thease kind of criminals (of all religions and political leanings) deserve prolonged suffering imo

 

He isn't a child molester he would probably be a hero to a good percentage of the gen pop. He would do just fine and simply stay with in his racial group as prisoners tend to do anyway. 

[rcummings]

4 hours ago, bert bloggs said:

yes and Germany was responsible for millions of Christian and Jewish  deaths in ww2, then of course there were the Muslim invaders in the middle ages ,,why do you lot always try and deflect ,now is now ,and that is what we are talking about .

"Muslim invaders in the middle ages"???

Actually it was the Christians who invaded the Muslims during the Middle Ages. It was called the Crusades?

[rcummings]

2 hours ago, bert bloggs said:

He certainly deserves what he got ,unfortunatly there are far far more muslims doing this sort of thing than any other faith ,why are they so aggresive compared to us who have very few evil people like this it seems than the muslim faith have 

Jesus preached love and understanding ,Mohamed death to unbelievers.

Sure, the history of Christianity is overwhelmingly one of following the words of Jesus. For about 1500 years large communities of Christians were doing fine in the the Muslim middle east. Muslims not doing fine at all in Christian Europe. As the Christians retook Spain from the Muslims, it's estimated that they also killed about 300,000 Jews. 

[Sujo]

2 hours ago, bert bloggs said:

He certainly deserves what he got ,unfortunatly there are far far more muslims doing this sort of thing than any other faith ,why are they so aggresive compared to us who have very few evil people like this it seems than the muslim faith have 

Jesus preached love and understanding ,Mohamed death to unbelievers.

Sarcasm right? Nothing to do with peaceful people getting murdered right?

[saakura]

13 hours ago, Tomsi said:

You understand you are sugar coating the mass murder of 51 innocent people by saying that the killing spree was bad but they (Muslims) are worse?

I am saying exactly the opposite! I'm saying that even if muslims are worse, it does not justify killing 51 innocents!!

[rcummings]

4 hours ago, bert bloggs said:

yes and Germany was responsible for millions of Christian and Jewish  deaths in ww2, then of course there were the Muslim invaders in the middle ages ,,why do you lot always try and deflect ,now is now ,and that is what we are talking about .

Well, since Germany was responsible for the deaths of millions of people in Europe and Europe was mostly Christian, it's inevitable that they would be responsible for the deaths of millions of Christians. But Christians weren't slaughtered because they were Christians, were they? It's entirely another matter as regards the Jews.

[Scott]

A few troll posts have been removed, as well as a Few that Have decided that Capitalization is an Issue.   It maybe, but not In This Thread.  

 

Please keep it civil.  We have some posts which are on the line.   Here's the rule, in case some people need to review it and avoid having posts removed or receiving a warning and possible suspension:

 

11) You will not post slurs, degrading or overly negative comments directed towards Thailand, specific locations, Thai institutions such as the judicial or law enforcement system, Thai culture, Thai people or any other group on the basis of race, nationality, religion, gender or sexual orientation.

 

The rules are here:   https://forum.thaivisa.com/terms/

 

[torturedsole]

I read a lot and peruse hundreds of comments on a daily basis on many MSM news sites, which are all moderated.

 

Let me play devil's advocate. I'm not witnessing any particular sympathy from UK commentators of these sites towards the Muslim NZ families. Actually, quite the opposite.  

 

My personal opinion is that the general UK population has experienced so many Muslim extremist attacks on our soil, including targeting children, that the majority are bordering on a couldn't care less attitude.  

[simple1]

On 8/28/2020 at 8:49 PM, bert bloggs said:

<SNIP> Jesus preached love and understanding <SNIP

Cert6ainly not reflected by numerous posters who one presumes were raised in the Christian faith