On March 16, Brenton Tarrant, the suspect in the Christchurch mosque shootings, appears in the Christchurch District Court (Image credit: Mark Mitchell/Pool/AP)

Christchurch terrorist attacks: Shooting suspect defends not guilty

On Thursday, Brenton Harrison Tarrantwho did terror attacks at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand defended not guilty. He encounters 92 impeachments, including 51 accusations of murder, 40 accusations of attempted killing and a terrorism charge.

During his appearance in the Christchurch High Court, the 28 years-old Australian defended not guilty to all impeachments. Tarrant admitted his acts of terrorism but still refused to say guilty, since he wrote a long mission statement before attacking mosques where he vowed to stand up not guilty. 

80 survivors, some injured victims and family members presented the hearing. However, Justice Cameron Mander said no filming or recording inside the court and the image of Tarrant would be pixelated.  Only the court have authorities to provide a video for about another 60 persons in an overflow room who couldn’t come to the courtroom to watch the proceeding.  

In order to help victims and their family members to have clear understanding about the hearing and the next measures in the case, 4 cultural advisers and other staff were assigned to assist them.

Before the proceeding began, Tarrant entered the courtroom with his grey sweatshirt and short cropped hair, brought by three prison officers in body armour vests. 

Justice Mander said that Tarrant’s mental health evaluations had been finished. In murder cases, mental-health assessments are necessary as standard procedure. According to his two assessments, the accused unable to enter pleas and stand trial since there were no correlations between his mental-health issue and his acts. 

On March 15, the shooting massacres at two mosques during Friday prayers happened. Tarrant acted alone and live-streamed his shooting acts through his Facebook account. The video went viral and later Facebook changed its policy for the feature. 

Since 1990, the Christchurch’s incident is the deadliest mass attacking in New Zealand. After the attacks, the government changed its gun laws. Tarrant is the first person to be impeached under New Zealand’s anti-terrorism legislation.

Source: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/new-zealand-shooting-brenton-tarrant-accused-of-killing-51-people-at-mosques-pleads-not-guilty/