Mosque shooter seeks review of conditions
The man responsible for the Christchurch mosque attacks wants to challenge his strict jail conditions and terrorist status.
The Australian white supremacist wants the High Court to review decisions made by the Department of Corrections about his prison conditions and his designation as a ‘‘terrorist entity’’ under the Terrorism Suppression Act. The judicial review was to be heard in Auckland today. He was to represent himself.
The gunman was in August jailed for life without parole for the murder of 51 people and attempted murder of 40 at Masjid An-nur and Linwood Mosque on March 15, 2019. He is the only person in New Zealand to be designated as a terrorist.
Stuff understands he is fighting the restrictions imposed for his life imprisonment, on human rights grounds. Under the Corrections Act, everyone in custody is entitled to exercise, bedding, a proper diet, one private visitor a week, a legal adviser, medical treatment, healthcare, mail, and telephone calls.
But there are exceptions. Entitlements can be withheld for reasons including being segregated or in protective custody, health and safety, and because it is not practicable.
Victims’ families and the survivor community were notified about the hearing yesterday afternoon. The review has no bearing on the outcome of the criminal case or the sentence imposed or on the man’s terrorism conviction. The terrorist is managed at Auckland Prison by the prisoner of extreme risk directorate.
The directorate, created in July 2019, was set up in response to the massacre and oversees the most dangerous inmates.
Corrections national commissioner Rachel Leota previously said the directorate was
‘‘made up of staff from a range of disciplines ... and ensures that we have the best intelligence, information, assessment and planning around the management of offenders who present with significant unique risks, which have the potential to cause significant harm or distress, either directly or indirectly’’.
Few details about the directorate have been revealed, with Corrections redacting documents obtained by Stuff because of concerns about divulging ‘‘highly sensitive operational detail’’.
In August last year, Nigel Hampton QC said the mosque shooter’s confinement would have to be carefully managed, given the risks of isolation to physical and mental health.
It would have to comply with the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment, whose governing body recommended against even short-term solitary confinement. New Zealand’s Bill of Rights protects against torture and cruel, degrading and excessively severe punishments.
In Norway, Anders Breivik, who murdered 77 people in a car bombing and a shooting spree in 2011, claimed his prison conditions, which included being held in isolation, were worse than the death penalty, and a violation of his human rights. But his years-long legal battle against his treatment came to an end in 2018, when the European Court of Human Rights rejected his appeal and said its decision was final.
New Zealand’s Bill of Rights protects against torture and cruel, degrading and excessively severe punishments.