NZ mosque shooter’s bid to have convictions overturned

The Australian who killed 51 Muslims at two mosques in New Zealand’s deadliest mass shooting has told an appeals court that he felt compelled to admit the crimes out of “irrationality” due to harsh prison conditions.

Brenton Tarrant appeared in the Wellington Court of Appeal on Monday and asked for the guilty plea to be dismissed, saying he was not in a rational state of mind at the time.

A three-judge panel will hear five days of evidence into Tarrant’s alleged unfitness to defend the terrorism, murder and attempted murder charges he faces following the 2019 attack in Christchurch.

If his bid is successful, his case will return to court for a hearing, which was averted when he admitted the hateful attack in March 2020.

He also wants to appeal his sentence of life imprisonment without the chance of parole, which has never been imposed before in New Zealand.

Tarrant’s testimony about his mental state when he pleaded guilty Monday was the first time he spoke meaningfully in a public setting since livestreaming the 2019 massacre on Facebook.

The self-described white supremacist migrated from Australia to New Zealand with the aim of carrying out his elaborately planned massacre.

He amassed a cache of semi-automatic weapons, took steps to avoid detection and wrote a lengthy manifesto before traveling from Dunedin to Christchurch and opening fire at two mosques in March 2019.

In addition to the 51 people who died, the youngest, a three-year-old boy, and dozens of others were seriously injured.

The attack is considered one of New Zealand’s darkest days, and institutions are trying to prevent Tarrant’s message from spreading through legal injunctions and bans on possession of the manifesto or video of the attack.

Monday’s hearing took place under tight security restrictions that severely limited who could see Tarrant’s evidence, including some reporters and those injured or mourned in the massacre.

Tarrant, who wore a white button-up shirt and black-rimmed glasses and had a shaved head, spoke via video from the white-walled room of the prison.

Responding to questions from the Crown attorney and lawyers representing him, Tarrant, 35, said his mental health had deteriorated due to his solitary confinement and limited reading material or contact with other inmates.

When he pleaded guilty, Tarrant said he suffered “nervous exhaustion”, uncertainty about his identity and beliefs, and confessed to the crimes several months before the trial was due to begin “because there was little I could do”.

Crown attorney Barnaby Hawes told Tarrant during questioning that he had other options.

Hawes said he could ask for the hearing date to be postponed on mental health grounds, or he could go to the hearing and defend himself.

Hawes also testified to Tarrant that there was little evidence that he was suffering from a serious mental crisis in the documentation of his behavior by mental health professionals and prison staff.

Tarrant claimed that his symptoms of mental illness were not recorded and that he sometimes tried to mask them.

“I was doing absolutely everything possible to appear confident, self-assured and mentally healthy,” he told the court.

He added that Tarrant’s behavior “reflects the political movement of which I am a part.”

“So I always wanted to put on the best possible front.”

He acknowledged that he had access to legal advice throughout the court process.

Tarrant’s lawyers were asked to remain anonymous because they feared it would make them unsafe to represent him.

In New Zealand, proposals to appeal convictions or sentences must be made within 20 working days.

Tarrant was nearly two years late filing his appeal, filing documents with the court in September 2022.

He told the court his offer was delayed because he did not have access to the information necessary to do so.

The trial is expected to continue for the rest of the week, but the judges are expected to announce their decision at a later date.

If Tarrant’s attempt to dismiss the guilty plea is rejected, the next hearing will focus on Tarrant’s bid to appeal his sentence.