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Wellington:
Families of victims gunned down at two New Zealand mosques urged a choose to impose the hardest potential sentence, life with out parole, on the gunman as he confirmed no regret and appeared to smirk at one survivor throughout a sentencing listening to on Tuesday.
Mirwais Waziri, who was wounded throughout the 2019 assault at Christchurch’s Al Noor mosque, put apart his ready courtroom assertion and addressed white supremacist Brenton Tarrant instantly, after seeing that he didn’t have “any regrets, any shame in his eyes”.
“He does not regret anything,” mentioned Waziri within the High Court in Christchurch on day two of the sentencing hearings.
“Today you are called terrorist and you proved to the world that us Muslims are not terrorists. I say to the people of New Zealand that terrorist do not have religion, race and colour,” mentioned Waziri,” whose words drew applause from the public gallery.
Nathan Smith, originally from Britain and a survivor of the Al Noor mosque shooting, also spoke directly to Tarrant who sat in grey prison clothes cornered by guards.
“When you get a free minute, which you’ll have loads of. Funny, eh? Very humorous. Maybe it’s best to attempt to learn the Koran. It’s stunning,” he said, reacting to Tarrant’s apparent smirk.
Tarrant, a 29-year-old Australian, is scheduled to be sentenced this week after pleading guilty to 51 murders, 40 attempted murders and one charge of committing a terrorist act during the 2019 shooting rampage in the city of Christchurch which he livestreamed on Facebook.
Prosecutors have told the court Tarrant carefully planned the attacks to cause maximum carnage by accumulating high-powered firearms and ammunition, training at rifle clubs and studying mosque layouts.
NO PAROLE
A murder conviction carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison. The judge can impose a life term without parole, a sentence that has never been used in New Zealand.
Farisha Razak said in a recorded message that Tarrant did not deserve any leniency after killing her father, Ashraf Ali, who was visiting New Zealand from Fiji.
“You made a recreation out of individuals’s lives,” said Razak.
“You mustn’t even be granted parole – ever.”
Zuhair Darwish, who lost his brother Kamel, said Tarrant should receive the harshest possible sentence.
“I do know in New Zealand legislation they’ve eliminated the demise penalty for people, however sadly he isn’t a human,” Darwish said.
The second day of a multi-day sentencing hearing was dedicated to allowing survivors and family members of victims to address the court, in person and via video.
Tarrant, who is representing himself, will be allowed to speak at some point during the hearings, although Judge Cameron Mander has powers to ensure the High Court is not used as a platform for extremist ideology.
While most of Tarrant’s victims were at Al Noor mosque, he killed seven people at the Linwood mosque, before being detained en route to a third.
The daughter of a woman killed in the Linwood mosque challenged Tarrant to use his life in prison to consider the beauty of the diversity and freedom he sought to destroy.
“While I’ve pity to your mum, I’ve no emotion for you. You are nothing,” said Angela Armstrong, daughter of 65-year-old victim Linda Armstrong.
“While he’ll stay trapped in a cage my mum is free. I due to this fact problem Tarrant to make use of his remaining lifetime to think about the wonder and life to be present in variety and freedom that he sought to distort and destroy.”
Kyron Gosse, nephew of Linda Armstrong, said the shooter had come to New Zealand as a guest, and used that privilege to destroy a family that had lived here for seven generations.
“Filled together with his personal racist agenda this coward hid behind his huge highly effective weapons and shot little previous Linda from afar,” said Gosse.
Tarrant “stole our nation’s innocence”, mentioned Gosse. New Zealand had been comparatively free from main gun violence till the nation’s worst mass capturing.
Live reporting from the courtroom was banned, and different restrictions had been put in place on what the media might report.
The hearings had been adjourned till Wednesday morning.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is printed from a syndicated feed.)
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