New Zealander jailed for sharing mosque shooting video : The Tribune India

Join Whatsapp Channel

New Zealander jailed for sharing mosque shooting video

WELLINGTON: A New Zealand man was jailed for 21 months on Tuesday for distributing gruesome livestream video of the Christchurch mosque attacks that killed 51 Muslim worshippers, local media reported.

New Zealander jailed for sharing mosque shooting video

Brenton Tarrant (C), the man charged in relation to the Christchurch massacre, stands in the dock during his appearance at the Christchurch District Court. AFP file



Wellington, June 18

A New Zealand man was jailed for 21 months on Tuesday for distributing gruesome livestream video of the Christchurch mosque attacks that killed 51 Muslim worshippers, local media reported.

Philip Arps, 44, was arrested in Christchurch four days after alleged gunman Brenton Tarrant’s March 15 rampage at two mosques in the South Island city resulted in the worst massacre in modern New Zealand history.

Arps pleaded guilty to two charges of distributing objectionable material for sharing footage that was livestreamed to social media during the attack.

Christchurch District Court heard Arps distributed the raw footage to about 30 people and had another version that was modified to include crosshairs and a “kill count”, the New Zealand Herald reported.

“This was in effect a hate crime against the Muslim community,” judge Stephen O’Driscoll said.

He said it was “particularly cruel” to share the video in the days after the attacks, when relatives were still waiting to hear news of their loved ones.

O’Driscoll found that Arps had set out to “glorify” the deaths of Muslims and any punishment other than imprisonment was inappropriate, Radio New Zealand reported.

New Zealand’s chief censor David Shanks classified the video from the mosque shooting as objectionable content soon after the shooting, making sharing the footage a crime punishable by up to 14 years in jail.

Shanks also outlawed publication of the rambling “manifesto” the shooter posted online before the attacks, saying it was intended to inspire “murder and terrorism”.

Arps, a self-described white supremacist, was convicted in 2016 of offensive behaviour for leaving a pig’s head at the Al Noor mosque, one of those that was targeted in the mass shooting, Newshub reported.

Tarrant last week pleaded not guilty to terrorism charges, as well as 51 counts of murder and 40 of attempted murder.

He was committed to stand trial in May next year. — AFP

Top News

'When government changes...': Rahul Gandhi after Rs 1,800 crore fresh I-T notice to Congress

'When government changes...': Rahul Gandhi after Rs 1,800 crore fresh I-T notice to Congress

The Congress leader accuses the BJP of indulging in ‘tax ter...

Chief Judicial Magistrate's court in UP's Banda orders judicial inquiry into death of gangster-politician Mukhtar Ansari

UP court orders judicial probe into gangster-politician Mukhtar Ansari’s death, seeks report in a month

Ghazipur MP Afzal Ansari on Tuesday alleged that his brother...

‘Heart attack or poisoning’: The life and times of Mukhtar Ansari—crime and politics

‘Heart attack or poisoning’: The life and times of Mukhtar Ansari—crime and politics

Eastern parts of Uttar Pradesh are among the poorest regions...

CBI files chargesheet against 20 institutes, 105 individuals in Himachal Pradesh multi-crore scholarship scam

CBI files chargesheet against 20 institutes, 105 individuals in Himachal Pradesh multi-crore scholarship scam

22 educational institutions were on CBI radar in the scholar...


Cities

View All