About: http://data.cimple.eu/news-article/eee497dd966ea4beba31de4bab33e183912a74c8a40b6743508e11e5     Goto   Sponge   NotDistinct   Permalink

An Entity of Type : schema:NewsArticle, within Data Space : data.cimple.eu associated with source document(s)

AttributesValues
rdf:type
schema:articleBody
  • The gunman behind New Zealand's Christchurch mosque shootings sacked his lawyers Monday and opted to represent himself, raising fears he would use a sentencing hearing next month to promote his white-supremacist views. Australian national Brenton Tarrant will be sentenced on August 24 on 51 murder convictions, 40 of attempted murder and one of terrorism arising from last year's massacre, the worst mass shooting in New Zealand's modern history. He has pleaded guilty to the charges. At a pre-sentencing hearing on Monday, High Court judge Cameron Mander allowed Tarrant's lawyers, Shane Tait and Jonathan Hudson, to withdraw from proceedings at the request of their client. However, the judge ordered "standby counsel" to be available next month in case Tarrant -- who appeared in the Christchurch court via video link from an Auckland prison -- changes his mind. New Zealand Muslim Association president Ikhlaq Kashkari questioned Tarrant's motives, saying victims could be re-traumatised if the gunman were allowed to spout far-right rhetoric from the dock. "My first concern when I read this was 'Oh my God, what's this guy up to, is he going to use this as a platform to promote his views and thoughts?'," he told AFP. "A lot of people are still going through trauma and this was seen as one of those events that would give them closure. I hope it's not going to be something that will trigger more pain instead." In March 2019, Tarrant gunned down Muslim worshippers during Friday prayers at two Christchurch mosques, live-streaming the killings as he went. His victims included children, women and the elderly. The former gym instructor unexpectedly reversed his not-guilty plea in March this year, removing the need for a lengthy trial. The terror and murder charges all carry life sentences, setting a minimum non-parole period of 17 years while also giving the judge power to imprison without the possibility of release. New Zealand does not have the death penalty. Survivors and the families of victims will be present during the three-day sentencing hearing and Islamic Women's Council of New Zealand spokeswoman Anjum Rahman said many would not want to hear from Tarrant. While she did not want to speculate on Tarrant's motive for representing himself, she said: "He has shown in the past that he likes to get attention and he wants attention. "I feel this is all part of that mindset." ns/dm/leg/kaf
schema:headline
  • New Zealand mosque shooter to represent himself at sentencing
schema:mentions
schema:author
schema:datePublished
http://data.cimple...sPoliticalLeaning
http://data.cimple...logy#hasSentiment
http://data.cimple...readability_score
http://data.cimple...tology#hasEmotion
Faceted Search & Find service v1.16.115 as of Oct 09 2023


Alternative Linked Data Documents: ODE     Content Formats:   [cxml] [csv]     RDF   [text] [turtle] [ld+json] [rdf+json] [rdf+xml]     ODATA   [atom+xml] [odata+json]     Microdata   [microdata+json] [html]    About   
This material is Open Knowledge   W3C Semantic Web Technology [RDF Data] Valid XHTML + RDFa
OpenLink Virtuoso version 07.20.3238 as of Jul 16 2024, on Linux (x86_64-pc-linux-musl), Single-Server Edition (126 GB total memory, 5 GB memory in use)
Data on this page belongs to its respective rights holders.
Virtuoso Faceted Browser Copyright © 2009-2025 OpenLink Software