New Zealand Mosque shooting: Victims' families urge 'life sentence & no parole' for gunman

Survivors and families of victims killed in mass shootings at two New Zealand mosques in 2019 have urged a High Court in Christchurch sentence the gunman for life term in prison with no parole. White supremacist Brenton Tarrant has pleaded guilty to 51 murders, 40 attempted murders and one charge of committing a terrorist act when he went on a shooting rampage and live-streamed on Facebook.

In New Zealand, a person convicted of murder gets a mandatory sentence of life in prison but it is the judge’s prerogative to pronounce the life term with no parole, a sentence which has not been used in the country till date. Reports suggest that the Tarrant showed no remorse during the hearing and even smirked at one of the survivors.

"You made a game out of people's lives. You should not even be granted parole - ever," said Farisha Razak whose father, Ashraf Ali, was killed in the attack while he was on a visit to New Zealand from Fiji.

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Planned the attack for months

Barnaby Hawes, the crown prosecutor, told the court that Tarrant flew a drone directly over the Al Noor mosque two months before the attack to get an aerial view of the buildings and take notes of the entry and exit doors. He said that the gunman planned his attacks for a time when the maximum number of worshippers would be present. As many as 190 people were in the Al Noor mosque on the day of attacks.

On March 15, 2019, the white supremacist opened fire on worshippers during Friday prayers at two mosques in Christchurch. Survivors and grieving relatives confronted the accused on the first day of the hearing and called his crimes horrible, saying he was unworthy of forgiveness and he killed his humanity. 

“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 attacks. “You thought you can break us. You failed miserably.”

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(With AP inputs | Image: AP)