{"id":38795,"date":"2019-04-04T23:23:04","date_gmt":"2019-04-04T23:23:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=38795"},"modified":"2019-04-04T23:23:04","modified_gmt":"2019-04-04T23:23:04","slug":"judge-orders-mental-health-test-for-nz-mosque-attacks-suspect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=38795","title":{"rendered":"Judge orders mental health test for NZ mosque attacks suspect"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Christchurch, New Zealand –<\/strong> The Australian man accused of murdering 50 people at two New Zealand<\/a> mosques has appeared in a court by video link from a maximum security prison in the country’s capital, Auckland.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the brief and sombre hearing in Christchurch on Friday, Justice Cameron Mander ordered Brenton Tarrant, the suspected gunman, to undergo a psychiatric assessment to determine his fitness to stand trial.<\/span><\/p>\n

The 28-year-old, a self-confessed white supremacist, sat still with an impassive face during the preliminary hearing, in contrast to his first court appearance when he smirked at the media and appeared to flash a white nationalist hand signal.<\/span><\/p>\n

New Zealand police on Thursday filed<\/a> 49 counts of murder against Tarrant, bringing the total number of murder charges to 50. He was also charged with 39 counts of attempted murder.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mander suppressed the names of the 39 survivors, citing concern for their welfare.<\/span><\/p>\n

The gallery was packed with survivors, two of them in wheelchairs, as well as relatives of victims. <\/span><\/p>\n

For many, it was their first glimpse of the man accused over the March 15 gun massacre.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Tarrant did not enter a plea and was remanded in custody until his next court appearance on June 14.<\/p>\n

The judge did not set a trial date.<\/p>\n

Dressed in a grey prison sweatshirt and hands cuffed together in front of him, Tarrant occasionally tilted his head to one side as he listened to the judge speak.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Christchurch mosque attack survivor says he forgives gunman (2:24)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

Tarrant had sacked his court appointed lawyer last month, saying he would represent himself. But at Friday’s court hearing he was represented by two lawyers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Shane Tait, a member of Tarrant’s legal team, said he was concerned the publication of the news that Tarrant’s mental health was being assessed could prejudice the trial.<\/span><\/p>\n

But Mander said the mental assessment was “an entirely normal, regular step to be taken at this stage of the process”.<\/span><\/p>\n

If found guilty, Tarrant faces life in prison without parole, something that has never happened in New Zealand before.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Pacific island nation does not have the death penalty and the longest previous sentence of prison time without parole was 30 years.<\/span><\/p>\n

After the hearing, victims and their families received a private debriefing session in the courtroom. Some were emotional as they left the building.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yama Nabi, whose father Haji Daoud Nabi was among those killed at the Noor Mosque, said it was important for him to be at court.<\/span><\/p>\n

Describing the killer as a “coward”, Yama said he wanted justice.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Christchurch, New Zealand – The Australian man accused of murdering 50 people at two New Zealand mosques has appeared in a court by video link from a maximum security prison in the country’s capital, Auckland. At the brief and sombre hearing in Christchurch on Friday, Justice Cameron Mander ordered Brenton Tarrant, the suspected gunman, to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":38796,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/38796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}