Overview
- Australian gunman Brenton Tarrant has launched a late appeal seeking leave to challenge his convictions and life-without-parole sentence for the 2019 Christchurch mosque attacks.
- The week-long hearing centers on whether allegedly torturous, inhumane custody made his March 2020 guilty pleas irrational and therefore unreliable.
- If the pleas are vacated, the case will return to the High Court for a trial; if declined, a separate hearing will consider his sentence appeal later this year.
- The Court of Appeal has limited in-court access, increased security, and arranged delayed streams to an overflow courtroom in Wellington and to Christchurch for victims and families.
- Tarrant is expected to give evidence during the hearing, and a High Court ruling has also cleared him to appear before the Coroners Court despite objections from survivors.