Category Archives: Christchurch

New Zealanders coming home for Christmas warned quarantine hotels may be full

Posted on by

Military says Kiwis will be disappointed if they haven’t prebooked a place as hotels approach capacity

New Zealand’s quarantine hotels are approaching capacity as the military warns there may not be room to house Kiwis planning to return home for Christmas.

Some 65,000 people have passed through New Zealand’s quarantine hotels since the borders closed in mid-March. Despite the facilities generally being four- and five-star establishments, there have been multiple escape attempts from them, and they have been denounced by a conservative US television host as “Covid camps”.

Continue reading...

The Christchurch testimonies: survivors and the bereaved give their accounts of New Zealand’s worst terror attack

Posted on by

More than 90 people – the wounded, the mourning, the defiant – spoke at the sentencing hearing for the gunman responsible for New Zealand’s most deadly terrorist attack, explaining how the massacre changed their lives forever. Here we document their evidence

Continue reading...

The Christchurch shooter’s sentence will consign him to nothingness | Steve Braunias

Posted on by

Justice has been seen to be done and the stories of his victims and those left behind will live on

They called him a mouse. A sheep. A coward. A loser. A peasant. A terrorist. A nothing. The latter two accusations made against Brenton Tarrant in the high court of Christchurch this week were the most factual; convicted of 51 counts of murder and an act of terrorism, his sentence of life without parole has consigned him to the void. He will cease to exist.

Good. He was bad rubbish, sentenced with all the beautiful and solemn efficiency of English law as practised in New Zealand, but the thing everyone will remember about the past few days is the testimony from those who survived the attack and the families of the victims.

Continue reading...

‘Your design was to divide … you failed’: Christchurch gunman jailed for life – video

Posted on by

The Australian man who killed 51 Muslim worshippers in two mosques in Christchurch has received a life sentence without parole sentence. It is the first time under current New Zealand law that a sentence of life without the possibility of parole has been imposed.

Outside the court Muslims and non-Muslims gathered together to mark the end of three days of emotional victim impact statements during which more than 90 of those bereaved or wounded in the attacks addressed the court. Many asked Mander to bar the gunman from ever walking free from jail.

Continue reading...

New Zealand media put Christchurch gunman in his place with focus on victims

Posted on by

New Zealanders and media embody Jacinda Ardern’s approach to deny gunman publicity, muting coverage until life sentence delivered

On the first day of sentencing, New Zealand’s public broadcaster TVNZ put out its nightly news bulletin. The legal process unfolding in Christchurch made it to fourth spot, behind three domestic Covid-19 stories.

Radio New Zealand (RNZ) focused its attention on the victim impact statements. The gunman himself barely warrants a mention, beyond the briefest physical descriptions from journalists in the room.

Continue reading...

Christchurch shooting: mosque gunman sentenced to life without parole

Posted on by

Australian terrorist did not oppose the unprecedented sentence, which comes after three days of emotional victim impact statements

The terrorist who killed 51 Muslim worshippers at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, will spend the rest of his life in jail, a judge has ruled. It is the first time under current New Zealand law that a sentence of life without the possibility of parole has been imposed.

Dozens more were wounded in the attacks in March last year in the country’s worst peacetime massacre. It prompted an outpouring of grief and unity in New Zealand and around the world, and generated debate about how to deal with white supremacist terrorism.

Continue reading...

Christchurch gunman says he will not speak at sentencing hearing

Posted on by

Terrorist does not intend to speak at Thursday’s hearing but will have a lawyer make a brief statement on his behalf

Over a period of three days, 91 of his victims read statements to him in court. But the terrorist who attacked two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand – killing dozens of Muslim worshippers at prayer – told a judge on Wednesday that he would not address the court himself.

There had been fears the Australian man would use the sentencing hearing as a platform to spread his anti-Islamic and extremist views. Brenton Tarrant, 29, a self-professed white supremacist, broadcast his massacre at the two mosques live on Facebook and published an extremist manifesto.

Continue reading...

‘From hero to martyr’: widow of 51st Christchurch shooting victim addresses gunman in court – video

Posted on by

Hamimah Tuyan, the widow of the 51st and final victim of 2019's Christchurch shooting, addresses the gunman, Brenton Tarrant, in court, telling him his death elevated him from hero to martyr. Zekeriya Tuyan battled for 48 days after 18 surgeries before succumbing to his injuries. Tuyan's statements come after three days of family members of victims addressing Tarrant and the court

Continue reading...

Anger, grief and dark humour fill Christchurch high court as victims face gunman

Posted on by

Victims and the bereaved describe how their lives have been changed since the Australian terrorist’s massacre

“Good afternoon to everyone except you,” Wasseim Alsati Daragmih told the terrorist. There was a ripple of laughter in the courtroom and a smile from the Australian man who had shot him.

It was the afternoon of the second day of sentencing for the man who stormed two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand in March 2019, killing 51 people and wounding dozens more – including Darragmih.

Continue reading...

Dear Christchurch, Breivik’s trial showed us extremist ideas struggle in the light | Åsne Seierstad

Posted on by

A 10-week trial of Anders Breivik afforded him publicity, and underground infamy, but the openness benefited the victims too

Terror wouldn’t work if no one wrote about it. Terrorists crave our attention, our anger and our tears. Norway and New Zealand have both been struck by attacks from violent extremists inspired by ideas from the same root – white supremacy and Islamophobia – but the two countries have chosen different paths in how to deal with it. Norway chose openness and full exposure, while the case around the Christchurch shooter seems dimly lit.

In 2011, the then Norwegian prime minister, Jens Stoltenberg, sat in his home office to work on a speech he was going to give the following day at the summer camp of the Labour party youth when a loud bang sounded. Anders Breivik had dressed as a police officer and detonated the bomb outside the prime minister’s office in downtown Oslo, killing eight. He then travelled to the island of Utøya where the camp would be held and shot and killed 69 people, mostly teenagers.

Continue reading...

‘I have only one choice’: mother of Christchurch victim forgives killer – video

Posted on by

Janna Ezat, whose son Hussein Al-Umari was one of 51 people killed in 2019's  Christchurch shooting, came face-to-face with the gunman in court, telling 29-year-old Australian Brenton Tarrant, she forgave him. "I have decided to forgive you, Mr Tarrant, because I don’t have hate, I don’t have revenge," she said during victim statements. "The damage is done. Hussein will never be here. I have only one choice: to forgive you."


Continue reading...

Christchurch gunman planned to burn mosques down, New Zealand police say

Posted on by

Court hears that Australian planned to attack a third mosque before he was arrested

A court in New Zealand has heard for the first time an official account of how a terrorist who murdered 51 people at two mosques in Christchurch planned and executed the attacks – and his intentions to burn down both places of worship and attack a third mosque.

The details of the attack were read as a high-security hearing began to decide whether the Australian man will ever leave prison.

Continue reading...

Christchurch mosque attacker to represent himself at sentencing

Posted on by

Australian man who pleaded guilty to 51 counts of murder will be sentenced in August

The Australian man who pleaded guilty to killing 51 Muslims in a terrorist attack in Christchurch in March 2019 has chosen to represent himself at his sentencing next month.

Brenton Tarrant pleaded guilty in March to 51 counts of murder, 40 of attempted murder and a terrorism charge after dozens of worshippers were gunned down at two mosques in New Zealand last year.

Continue reading...

Christchurch gunman pleads guilty to New Zealand mosque attacks that killed 51

Posted on by

Sudden change of plea by Australian attacker accused of killing dozens of worshippers comes as a shock to victims’ families

The Australian man charged with murdering 51 people in two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, has suddenly changed his plea to admit all charges at a hastily arranged court appearance.

On 15 March last year, a man dressed in military fatigues and armed with several automatic weapons shot dead 51 worshippers at Al Noor and Linwood mosques in inner-city Christchurch. Forty-nine people were also injured in the attacks, which were livestreamed on the internet.

Continue reading...

’15 March is about keeping people safe’: New Zealand cancels Christchurch attacks memorial – video

Posted on by

New Zealand has called off a national remembrance service to mark a year since the attacks on two Christchurch mosques because of concerns about the coronavirus outbreak. The event, which was to be held in the city on Sunday, was expected to attract a large crowd of people from across the country and overseas

Continue reading...

Far-right extremists still threaten New Zealand, a year on from the Christchurch attacks

Posted on by

I worry we don’t have enough resources and skills locally to adequately monitor threats in our community

In the hours after the Christchurch mosque attacks on March 15 last year, I wrote that I hoped New Zealand would finally stop believing it was immune to far-right extremist violence. A year on, I’m not sure enough has changed.

I’ve researched far-right extremism for decades – and I would argue it remains a high-level threat in New Zealand, not just overseas.

Continue reading...

One year after the Christchurch attack, we are determined to be happy | Maysoon Salama

Posted on by

Maysoon Salama, whose son was killed in the massacre, says survivors miss their loved ones, but are working hard to bring the community together

At the childcare centre my husband and I run in Christchurch, most of the children would have had somebody in their family who was injured during the attack or knew somebody who was injured.

Five of the children lost parents; lost their fathers. One of them was my granddaughter, Aya. And we had several whose parents were traumatised or injured. Some of the children were hearing a lot of things at home.

Continue reading...

Brutalised but defiant: Christchurch massacre survivors one year on

Posted on by

As the first anniversary of the atrocity that shocked New Zealand looms, victims struggle with enduring trauma – but also carry a sense of hope

At first, Hisham al Zarzour couldn’t remember what had happened. Later, he tried to forget. Lying beneath the bodies of other worshippers at Al Noor mosque in Christchurch last March as a gunman fired again and again, he prayed that Allah would send him back to Syria to die.

There, war had been a way of life. Chaos became normal. But the violence in peaceful New Zealand came just seven months after the sleepy, leafy city had become his home. That something so barbaric could happen in his place of refuge was unbearable.

Continue reading...

After the Christchurch shooting politicians promised tolerance. It didn’t last | Morgan Godfery

Posted on by

Ahead of the first anniversary, New Zealand First’s Shane Jones goes into election mode and stokes racial tensions

Isn’t it astonishing that, not even two weeks out from the Christchurch shooting’s first anniversary, the senior cabinet minister Shane Jones – an MP for New Zealand First, a party you could arguably describe as our local Ukip branch – is basing his re-election campaign on stoking anti-immigrant racism.

In a television sit-down last weekend the “retail politician” – Jones’s words – went after the Indian community, blaming its students for “ruining” New Zealand universities and arguing the country was opening the doors too widely to immigrants from “New Delhi”. He guaranteed that only New Zealand First would cut immigration. Labour, in Jones’s telling, is too “PC” to make the necessary cuts, and National are apparently in the pocket of Johnny foreigner taking big-money donations from overseas contributors. They won’t follow through either.

Continue reading...

New Zealand would be honoured to take Behrouz Boochani. Australia be damned | Morgan Godfery

Posted on by

The moral case for the former Manus island detainee becoming a citizen is as simple as ‘asylum is a human right’

I wonder if it winds up Peter Dutton to know that Behrouz Boochani, the Kurdish-Iranian journalist, award-winning author and former Manus Island detainee, is a free man in the continent’s orbit. Boochani, the best-known witness, critic and victim of Australia’s offshore “processing centres”, remains in New Zealand after his 30-day visa came to an end. No one quite knows what the No Friend But the Mountains author is planning next, but it seems safe to assume that sooner or later he’ll lodge an application for asylum in New Zealand. A permanent reminder to Dutton, his predecessors and the country’s immigration detention system that they are not as close to vanishing the “boat people” problem as they might have thought.

For their part New Zealand’s policymakers fear as much with headlines suggesting if Boochani’s hypothetical asylum application is successful it could “fuel tensions with Australia”. The problem is Behrouz Boochani, New Zealander, would enjoy free movement between his new home and his old incarcerators, unless Dutton and the gang insert new exceptions in the Trans-Tasman Travel Arrangement. This is the “back door” the Coalition government in Canberra is so afraid of, and the political problem preventing Scott Morrison from taking up Jacinda Ardern’s invitation to resettle the last remaining detainees on Manus.

Continue reading...