Families and survivors in chance to confront NZ mass murderer
● Hearing begins for New Zealand mosques killer Brenton Tarrant
and survivors had their first chance to confront the white supremacist who slaughtered 51 worshippers in a mass shooting at two New Zealand mosques as his fourday sentencing hearing began yesterday.
“You killed your own humanity, and I don’t think the world will forgive you for your horrible crime,” said a tearful Maysoon Salama, the mother of 33-year-old Atta Elayyan, who was killed in the March 2019 attacks. “You thought you can break us. You failed miserably.”
The gunman, 29-year-old Australian Brenton Harrison Tarrant, pleaded guilty in March to 51 counts of murder, 40 counts of attempted murder and one count of terrorism – the first terrorism conviction in New Zealand’s hismother tory. He could become the first person in New Zealand to be sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, the toughest sentence available.
Tarrant was brought into the Christchurch High Court shackled and wearing a grey prison outfit. In the dock, unshackled and surrounded by five officers, he showed little emotion throughout the hearing. He occasionally looked around the room, tapped his fingers, and watched the survivors as they spoke.
The courtroom was only half full due to coronavirus distancing requirements, while many others watched from adjacent courtrooms where the hearing was streamed. Survivors and family members occasionally wept and comforted each other.
Two dozen victims and family members told the court about the pain of losing husbands, wives, sons and brothers. Some had family members around them for support, others spoke through translators or on pre-recorded videos from abroad.
One of those was grandfamilies Saira Patel, who spoke from Melbourne in Australia and described the moment she thought she would die in the Linwood mosque.
“I stretched both my arms toward my husband so we would die together,” she said.
But it was her husband of 36 years, Musa, who was shot in the back. When paramedics arrived, she said, they told her to push on the bullet hole to lessen the bleeding, but her hands kept slipping with all the blood. When they took over, she said, she held her husband’s warm hands until they dropped. He had died.
“I’m still searching for my husband’s beautiful face in the crowds,” she said.
Another speaker, Janna Ezat, whose son Hussein Al-umari was killed, said nothing less than the death penalty would be fair.
Yesterday’s hearing began with prosecutors outlining the attacks in a 26-page summary of facts, the first detailed account by authorities about what happened that day, including the revelation that Tarrant had intended to burn down the mosques.
Tarrant has dismissed his lawyers and is representing himself during the sentencing, raising fears he could try to use the occasion as a platform to promote his racist views. He can choose to speak once the survivors have spoken, although the judge will likely shut down any attempts he makes to grandstand.
New Zealand abolished the death penalty for murder in 1961, and the longest sentence imposed since then has been life imprisonment with a minimum 30-year non-parole period. Justice Cameron Mander will decide on the gunman’s sentence at the end of the hearing.
The attacks targeting people praying at the Al Noor and Linwood mosques shocked New Zealand and prompted new laws banning the deadliest types of semi-automatic weapons. They also prompted global changes to social media protocols after the gunman livestreamed his attack on Facebook, where it was viewed by hundreds of thousands of people.