life in jail for christchurch mosques killer

Lhe Christchurch mosque killer Brenton Tarrant was sentenced on Thursday, August 27, to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for having murdered 51 faithful Muslims in 2019 in New Zealand.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern immediately reacted, wishing her a life of “total and absolute silence”. “I hope this is the last time we have to hear or say the terrorist’s name ”, she added.

The crowd of Muslims and non-Muslims gathered in front of the court, for its part, let their joy explode. “This is the justice we hoped for”, Welcomed Gamal Fouda, imam of the al-Nour mosque, one of the places of worship where Mr. Tarrant killed worshipers. “However, no sorrow will bring our loved ones back and we will remain sad until the end of our days”, He underlined.

Four days of hearing

At the end of the four-day hearing, Judge Cameron Mander pointed out that behind the ideology “twisted” of this “bad man”And“inhuman”, Hid a“deep hatred”Which led him to prey on defenseless men, women and children.

“Your crimes are so cruel that even if you are detained until your death, it will not meet the need for sanctions”, Affirmed Mr. Mander during the announcement of this sentence of unprecedented severity in the history of the country.

The magistrate solemnly read the names of those murdered in this carnage and recounted in detail how Mr. Tarrant coldly executed the injured, ignoring their pleas for mercy.

“Your actions were inhumane”

“It was brutal and ruthless. Your actions were inhumane”, Struck him the magistrate, underlining the very heavy price paid by the Muslim community of New Zealand.

On March 15, 2019, this white Australian supremacist slaughtered in cold blood and in twenty minutes, 51 worshipers during Friday prayers in two mosques in Christchurch. This carnage had sparked a huge wave of global indignation.

After denying for a year that he was responsible for 51 murders, 40 attempted murders and one terrorist act, he finally pleaded guilty in March to all of these charges.

Prosecutor Mark Zarifeh considered this carnage to be “unprecedented in New Zealand’s criminal history”. “The offense was motivated by a strong racist and xenophobic ideology (…) He is clearly the worst murderer in New Zealand”, He launched. For Mr. Zarifeh, life imprisonment was “the only appropriate sentence”For Mr. Tarrant.

“Terrorist”

Faced with the 66 survivors and family members of victims, overwhelmed by grief and anger against a “terrorist”Which, according to them, deserves to die or not to“never see the sun”, The 29-year-old Australian was left unmoved.

During these four days of hearing, prosecutor Barnaby Hawes recounted how the Australian had methodically shot dead women, children and men, while filming the killing and broadcasting it live on social media.

In mid-July, Mr Tarrant, a former fitness instructor, fired his lawyers and said he would defend himself. The court, which feared that he would use these hearings as a platform to promote his beliefs, imposed exceptional restrictions on the media in order to prevent it from gaining an echo.

When asked by Judge Mander on Wednesday if he planned to speak out, the killer replied that he would not go to court in person. Court-appointed attorney Pip Hall contented himself with a brief statement on his behalf. “Mr Tarrant does not oppose being sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole”Said Mr. Hall.

However, the court learned that the Australian had belatedly expressed his remorse, in April, during an interview with the prison authorities. He then qualified his actions as “unnecessary, odious and irrational”.

Judge Mander rejected these statements, considering that they were “not corroborated”And“interested”. In his eyes, the perpetrator of these massacres never expressed the slightest compassion towards his victims and he probably kept his racist beliefs.

Kept in isolation

Tarrant is expected to be kept in solitary confinement in New Zealand’s only high security prison in Auckland.

The Australian had arrived in New Zealand in 2017, spending many hours on the online forums at his home in Dunedin (south) where he had stored weapons in preparation for the killings he had planned in Christchurch, a city from the south of the country.

The slaughter led the government to toughen the gun law and step up efforts to fight extremism on the Internet.

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