NZ mosque murderer hears from survivors before sentencing
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Wellington — The father of slain three-year-old Mucaad Ibrahim, the youngest victim in the New Zealand mosque shootings, told the white supremacist who gunned down his son that “true justice” awaited him in the next life and it would be more severe than prison.
“You have killed my son and to me it is as if you have killed the whole of New Zealand,” Aden Ibrahim Diriye said in a statement read by a family member during a sentencing hearing for Brenton Tarrant on Wednesday. “Know that true justice is waiting for you in the next life and that will be far more severe. I will never forgive you for what you have done.”
Gunman Brenton Tarrant, an Australian, is scheduled to be sentenced this week after pleading guilty to 51 murders, 40 attempted murders and one charge of committing a terrorist act during the 2019 shooting rampage in the city of Christchurch which he livestreamed on Facebook.
A murder conviction carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison. The judge can impose a life term without parole, a sentence that has never been used in New Zealand. Survivors and families of victims have addressed the court this week and many have urged the judge to sentence Tarrant to the most severe sentence.
Diriye, a refugee from Somalia who moved to New Zealand 25 years ago, told the court his son had been robbed of a future.
“He used to engage and play with the police; at home he would run around the house pretending to be a cop and wear a police uniform. We thought one day he might become a police officer,” he said in his statement.
Survivors, families defiant
While most of Tarrant’s victims were at Al Noor mosque, including Mucaad Ibrahim, he killed seven people at the Linwood mosque.
The casualty list would likely have been higher if it weren’t for Abdul Aziz Wahabzada, who was commended for his courage on Wednesday by high court judge Cameron Mander after confronting Tarrant at the Linwood mosque.
After shots rang out in the mosque, Wahabzada engaged Tarrant outside, throwing a bank card machine at him and drawing fire when the gunman returned to his car, loaded with high-powered weapons, ammunition and incendiary devices.
“I didn’t want him to go inside the mosque because we had 80-100 people praying at that time,” Wahabzada said on Wednesday.
Wahabzada took cover ...
“You have killed my son and to me it is as if you have killed the whole of New Zealand,” Aden Ibrahim Diriye said in a statement read by a family member during a sentencing hearing for Brenton Tarrant on Wednesday. “Know that true justice is waiting for you in the next life and that will be far more severe. I will never forgive you for what you have done.”
Gunman Brenton Tarrant, an Australian, is scheduled to be sentenced this week after pleading guilty to 51 murders, 40 attempted murders and one charge of committing a terrorist act during the 2019 shooting rampage in the city of Christchurch which he livestreamed on Facebook.
A murder conviction carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison. The judge can impose a life term without parole, a sentence that has never been used in New Zealand. Survivors and families of victims have addressed the court this week and many have urged the judge to sentence Tarrant to the most severe sentence.
Diriye, a refugee from Somalia who moved to New Zealand 25 years ago, told the court his son had been robbed of a future.
“He used to engage and play with the police; at home he would run around the house pretending to be a cop and wear a police uniform. We thought one day he might become a police officer,” he said in his statement.
Survivors, families defiant
While most of Tarrant’s victims were at Al Noor mosque, including Mucaad Ibrahim, he killed seven people at the Linwood mosque.
The casualty list would likely have been higher if it weren’t for Abdul Aziz Wahabzada, who was commended for his courage on Wednesday by high court judge Cameron Mander after confronting Tarrant at the Linwood mosque.
After shots rang out in the mosque, Wahabzada engaged Tarrant outside, throwing a bank card machine at him and drawing fire when the gunman returned to his car, loaded with high-powered weapons, ammunition and incendiary devices.
“I didn’t want him to go inside the mosque because we had 80-100 people praying at that time,” Wahabzada said on Wednesday.
Wahabzada took cover ...
