As stated in the court’s decision, Brenton Tarrant is “without a doubt” the worst criminal and murderer in the history of the country. He committed these murders in mid-March 2019

Australian far-right terrorist Brenton Tarrant was sentenced to life in prison on Thursday, without the possibility of parole, for two attacks on mosques in New Zealand, in which he killed 51 people in mid-March 2019.

This is the first time that the New Zealand Justice has handed down a sentence of these characteristics, because as the court’s decision states, Tarrant is “without a doubt” the worst criminal and murderer in the country’s history.

“A monster”, says the sentence, who will remain behind bars for life, as reaffirmed by the High Court of Christchurch, a city in eastern New Zealand where the attacks took place in which 51 people were killed and another 40 were injured.

“Your crimes are so perverse that even if you are detained until you die, the requirements for punishment and denunciation will not be exhausted,” said Judge Cameron Mander during the reading of the sentence. The magistrate has maintained that Tarrant acted out of “hatred”, apparently “deprived of any empathy” and did not show “mercy” at any time while carrying out the attacks.

Throughout previous hearings, 29-year-old Tarrant had already pleaded guilty to these murders and 40 attempted homicides, as well as the terrorism charges imposed against him.

The far-right terrorist was also planning to set fire to the two mosques against which he carried out the attack, as well as to attack a third when he was arrested by police on his way to Ashburton, 85 kilometres from Christchurch, where he was planning another massacre.

Reactions

After hearing the ruling, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has argued that Tarrant “deserves a life of complete and total silence.” The president has acknowledged that the trial has revived the “horrible events” of that day, but has hoped that today is “the last in which we have no reason to hear or pronounce the name of the terrorist” who committed them.

The Australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, has also welcomed the sentence, who has clarified that Tarrant will not go to his native country to serve his sentence since no formal request has been received in that regard. “The world should not see or hear from him anymore,” he told Parliament, according to the DPA agency.