White Supremacist Who Killed 51 at Christchurch Mosques Loses Appeal Bid
Brenton Tarrant's attempt to overturn convictions and sentence rejected by three-judge panel; victims' families relieved
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- Brenton Tarrant, the white supremacist who killed 51 people at two Christchurch mosques in March 2019, has lost his bid to overturn his convictions and life sentence.
- The 35-year-old argued his guilty pleas were irrational due to poor prison conditions, but a three-judge panel unanimously rejected his appeal, finding his claims inconsistent and unsupported.
- Victim family members expressed relief at the decision.
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The March 2019 Christchurch mosque shooting was one of the deadliest mass shootings in modern history. Tarrant livestreamed the attack on social media and posted a manifesto expressing white supremacist ideology. The case prompted New Zealand to overhaul its gun laws and sparked global discussions about online extremism.
Brenton Tarrant, the white supremacist who killed 51 people at two New Zealand mosques, has lost his bid to overturn his convictions and sentence.
The Australian man is serving a life sentence with no parole after admitting to the murders and trying to kill another 40 worshippers in the March 2019 attack in Christchurch.
During a week-long hearing in February, Tarrant, now 35, argued he was incapable of making rational decisions at the time of his plea because of "torturous and inhumane" conditions in prison. He also launched an appeal against his sentence.
The facts around Tarrant's crimes are "beyond dispute", the panel of three judges said in a unanimous decision.
In his appeal, Tarrant claimed he made the guilty pleas while he was "irrational" and under a poor mental state. The judges found his claims inconsistent and not supported by other witnesses, concluding that he was not "coerced or pressured in any way" to plead guilty.
"He has not identified any arguable defence, or indeed any defence known to the law. We have also rejected his claim that his guilty pleas were the product of him having an irrational state of mind induced by his prison conditions," they said on Thursday.
Aya al-Umari, who lost her older brother Hussein in the attack, said she was "pleased and relieved" with the court's decision, "and to see justice is being served again".
"I was confident that there were no solid grounds for the appeal, and the decision today confirms that," al-Umari told the BBC.
"I remember thinking at the sentencing that this [would be] the end of it, and we can try to move forward and collect the pieces after the destruction of our lives. But things like this appeal hearing... takes you right back to the moments of fragility.
"Hearing the outcome today really gives that reassurance and comfort around the right processes being followed," she said.
Within a month of the shootings, the country's parliament had voted overwhelmingly to ban military-style semi-automatic weapons as well as parts that could be used to build prohibited firearms.
