A white supremacist who killed 51 Muslim worshippers at two mosques in New Zealand in 2019 said on Monday that he was irrational when he pleaded guilty, as he sought to overturn his conviction.
Brenton Tarrant, 35, appeared in court in Wellington via a video link, and gave evidence as he sought to overturn his guilty pleas and face a trial.
The Australian national attacked two mosques in Christchurch during Friday prayers in the deadliest mass shooting in New Zealand’s history.
He used military-style semi-automatic weapons and livestreamed the killings on Facebook with a head-mounted camera.
While Tarrant initially denied all charges and was preparing to stand trial, he entered guilty pleas a year later to 51 charges of murder, 40 counts of attempted murder and one charge of committing a terrorist act.
Tarrant told the court his mental health had deteriorated due to harsh prison conditions while he was awaiting trial, and that he was essentially not fit to plead guilty, according to a report in the New Zealand Herald.
“I did not have the mindframe or mental health required to be making informed decisions at that time,” Tarrant said.
“I think the issue is, did I really know what I wanted to do or what would be a good idea? No, I didn’t actually … I was making choices, but they were not choices made voluntarily and they were not choices made rationally due to the (prison) conditions.”
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Counsel acting for Tarrant had their names and identities suppressed by a court order, and could not be reached for comment.
A court document showed the Court of Appeal would check if Tarrant was incapable of making rational decisions when he entered his guilty pleas “as a result of the conditions of his imprisonment, which he says were torturous and inhumane”.
Tarrant is the first person sentenced by a New Zealand court who has received a sentence requiring them to spend the rest of their life in prison after receiving a life sentence in prison without parole.
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The appeal hearing is scheduled to last for five days and is expected to finish on Friday.
If the appeal court declines to grant the application to quash the guilty pleas, a hearing later in the year will consider the appeal on his sentence.
If the charges are overturned, the case will be sent back to the High Court for Tarrant to stand trial on the charges.
Families of some victims assembled at the Wellington court to watch Tarrant give evidence, which lasted for several hours.
“It’s really annoying because he’s trying to play with all of us, and this is just a waste of our time and waste of taxpayers’ money, and he just wants to play with us,” Rashid Omar, whose son Tariq was killed in the shooting, told state broadcaster TVNZ.
