CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand — The Australian man accused of carrying out the mass killings at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, last month will be charged with 50 counts of murder in a court appearance on Friday, the police said.
The new charges come as no surprise. The suspect, Brenton Harrison Tarrant, 28, had been held on a single count of murder while the authorities carried out their investigation of the March 15 killings, which left 50 people dead and many others wounded.
Mr. Tarrant will also be charged with 39 counts of attempted murder, according to the Thursday statement from the New Zealand Police, which did not identify him by name. “Other charges are still under consideration,” the police said.
If Mr. Tarrant is found guilty, he could be sentenced to life in prison without parole. No one in New Zealand has ever received that sentence, but judges have the right to impose it for particularly heinous murders. New Zealand does not have the death penalty.
The Christchurch gunman is believed to have posted a hate-filled manifesto online shortly before carrying out the killings, which were livestreamed on Facebook.
Since the massacre, New Zealand has moved swiftly to ban military-style semiautomatic weapons, and it is considering putting restrictions on social media. On Thursday, Australia passed a law requiring social media platforms to quickly remove “abhorrent violent material,” over the objections of tech companies.
Source : Nytimes
