Muslims and non-Muslims cheered and sang together outside a New Zealand court Thursday as the white supremacist who unleashed carnage at two mosques was jailed for life, with one survivor saying he will be able to sleep at night again.
“What we have seen today is the justice that we hoped (for),” said Gamal Fouda, imam of Christchurch’s Al Noor mosque, as well-wishers handed flowers to the survivors and bereaved family members emerging from the Christchurch High Court.
Australian Brenton Tarrant, 29, began his killing spree at Al Noor before moving to a second mosque in suburban Linwood while Muslims were at Friday prayers on March 15 last year.
He murdered 51 people that day, and at the end of a four-day hearing, he became the first person in New Zealand to be sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.
Afghan refugee Taj Kamran, who was shot several times in the leg and still requires walking aids, leaned against a fence as he raised his arms in joy.
“Tonight I will be able to sleep,” he said. “I could not sleep after the shooting, I cried a lot.”
Despite the sentence, the strictest possible under New Zealand law, Fouda said the loss inflicted by Tarrant was irreversible.
“No punishment is going to bring our loved ones back and our sadness will continue for the rest of our lives,” he said.
Some survivors and family members of victims described feeling relief, and the hope for some closure.
Abdul Aziz, who chased the gunman from the Linwood mosque, said the sentence was “what he deserved to get and what we deserved to get. We can move on with our lives.”
And Haminah Tuyan, whose husband was killed by Tarrant, said she was “relieved and at peace” and was going home to pray.
“In our religion, after something like this we put our forehead on the ground and on the floor and we thank Allah profusely,” she added. AFP
Hazim Al-Umari, father of 35-year-old Hussein who was shot dead while trying to protect others, said the life sentence was what he wanted.
“I am happy, happy for us. Hussein was brave, we know from the eyewitnesses and from the video that he tried to do something to protect the worshippers. He could have run away but he didn’t,” he said.
“It doesn’t bring our son back but it ends this chapter.”