WELLINGTON: A white supremacist who shot and killed 51 people at two New Zealand mosques in 2019 launched an appeal on Monday seeking to overturn his conviction.
Brenton Tarrant, an Australian former gym instructor, admitted carrying out New Zealand’s deadliest modern-day mass shooting before being sentenced to life in jail in August 2020.
But the convicted killer now argues “torturous and inhumane” detention conditions during his trial made him incapable of making rational decisions when he pleaded guilty, according to a court synopsis of the case.
Tarrant is being held in a specialist unit for prisoners of extreme risk at Auckland Prison, seldom interacting with inmates or other people.
He appeared in the Court of Appeal in Wellington via video link, his head shaved and wearing black glasses and a white button-up shirt.
“I did not have the mind frame or mental health required to be making informed decisions at that time,” Tarrant told the court, according to the New Zealand Herald.
Tarrant said his state of mind was such that he had considered trying to implicate US President Donald Trump in the crime.
“What I said at the time is ‘perhaps I could go out and say there was a second shooter on the roof, perhaps I could say it was Donald J Trump’,” he said, according to national broadcaster RNZ.
If the Court of Appeal in Wellington upholds Tarrant’s conviction, it will also need to consider an appeal against his sentence. If his conviction is overturned the case will be sent to the High Court for a retrial.
His penalty of life imprisonment without parole was the stiffest in New Zealand history. Armed with an arsenal of semi-automatic weapons, Tarrant attacked worshippers at two mosques in Christchurch on March 15, 2019.
He published an online manifesto before the attacks and then livestreamed the killings for 17 minutes. His victims were all Muslim and included children, women and the elderly.
There were heavy restrictions on who can be in court during Monday’s appeal hearing, with only counsel, media and court officials allowed. Families and friends of those killed or wounded in the attacks had been invited to watch proceedings in Christchurch remotely by video with a one-hour delay.
Published in Dawn, February 10th, 2026
