Australian white supremacist who killed 51 in New Zealand mosques appeals life sentence

WELLINGTON - The Australian white supremacist who

murdered 51 people at two New Zealand mosques in 2019

will appeal his conviction and life sentence, a court officer told AFP Tuesday.

Armed with an arsenal of semi-automatic weapons, Brenton Tarrant had attacked Friday worshippers at two mosques in March 2019, livestreaming the killings as he went. His victims were all Muslim and included children, women, and the elderly.

Tarrant pleaded guilty in 2020 to 51 charges of murder and 40 counts of attempted murder, and was

sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole

– the first time a whole-life term has been handed down in New Zealand.

“An appeal against convictions and sentence has been filed,” Ms Liz Kennedy, a spokesman in the Office of the Chief Justice, said Tuesday.

During the sentence in August 2020, Judge Cameron Mander said he was imposing the harshest possible term for Tarrant’s “inhuman” actions.

“Your crimes are so wicked, that even if you are detained until you die it will not exhaust the requirements of punishment and denunciation,” Judge Mander said at the time.

Tarrant’s lawyer, Mr Tony Ellis, had said that his client said his pleas were entered under duress and “decided that the simplest way out was to plead guilty”.

After Tarrant’s 17-minute livestream of his mosque attacks, Facebook said it removed a staggering 1.5 million videos that proliferated within the first 24 hours showing the harrowing viral footage. AFP