Christchurch mosque terrorist’s Court of Appeal hearing to begin

The 35-year-old Australian, who killed 51 people during the March 15, 2019, attacks, is applying for leave to appeal his conviction and sentence. 

He also wants to withdraw his guilty plea, nearly seven years after his horrific hate crime.

At the hearing, the Court will be primarily considering the application to vacate the guilty pleas. The central issue will be whether, at the time he entered his guilty pleas, he was incapable of making rational decisions as a result of the conditions of his imprisonment, which he says were “torturous and inhumane”.

Sara Qasem’s father Abdelfattah was one of the innocent worshippers gunned down in Al Noor mosque.

She said the appeal was “pretty shocking to be honest”.

“To see it brought back and to have the perpetrator and the terrorist brought back in this way, it’s quite jarring. It’s not a situation I think many of us expected ourselves to be in ever again.”

At his first court appearance, Brenton Tarrant gave a white supremacist signal. Many are concerned this latest hearing will present him with another opportunity.

“It’s no secret this will just be used as a platform for the perpetrator to express his violent and dark points of view and perspective and try to get that back out into the world,” Qasem said.

However, Christchurch barrister James Rapley KC said: “The Court of Appeal won’t allow it to become a platform for hate speech, of that I’m sure.”

A year after the massacre, in a sudden about turn, the terrorist pleaded guilty to 51 charges of murder, and one terrorism charge. His guilty pleas coincided with the first day of a nationwide Covid lockdown, and took place in a closed court.

Because of that, his victims and their families weren’t allowed to attend, but there was huge relief they’d been spared a lengthy trial.

Temel Atacocugu, who was shot nine times in the attack, said: “I’m emotional, phew, one job is done, so he is guilty, he accepted.”

In late 2020, Tarrant was sentenced to life without parole. It’s the only time the sentence has been imposed in New Zealand, and many thought he’d never be heard from again.

“He’s committed the most heinous of terrorist acts, killing innocent people and changing the fabric of our society forever, but everyone has to be treated the same under our law,” Rapley said.

“I mean that’s an important part of our democratic society and as a society we benefit from treating everyone the same.”

He said the terrorist would have to explain why he didn’t file an appeal within 20 working days of his sentence, instead waiting five-and-a-half years to do so.

“I don’t know the details of his appeal. I don’t act for him, but that’s a difficult argument to make, because he pleaded guilty.

“His team are going to have to argue some pretty difficult things to convince the court he should be given a leave to appeal, and secondly, the merits of the appeal are there any merits to the appeal.”

Many of his victims’ families, and those scarred by his bullets, planned to attend the hearing, including Sara Qasem.
“I’ve already been through the hardest thing, the hardest thing was the loss of my father,” she said.

“Does it worry me? He doesn’t have that power over me, my love is far greater than my fear.”

Source: 1News 
--Agencies