The Washington Post - 27.03.2020

FRIDAy, MARCH 27 , 2020. THE WASHINGTON POST eZ re A

tator, noted that a guilty plea,

however belated, might open the

possibility of a sentence with

parole.

“In New Zealand, a person

pleading guilty is u sually entitled

to a reduction in their sentence

for the guilty plea, so there may

be a hope that a guilty plea will

mean there will only be a life

sentence with a very long nonpa-

role period, instead of a sentence

of life without parole,” he said.

The offense is so serious, how-

ever, “that even with a guilty

plea, a life-without-parole sen-

tence must still be likely,” Edgel-

er added.

Police said arrangements for

Thursday’s hearing were made

hastily after Ta rrant indicated

through his attorney on Tuesday

that he wished to be brought

before the court. “Police appreci-

ate this news will come as a

surprise to the victims and the

public, some of whom may have

wished to be present in the

courtroom,” they said in a state-

ment.

Omar Nabi, whose father, Haji

Daoud Nabi, died in the attacks,

said he felt relief on hearing the

news but added that “ to be there,

to see it unfold would have been

a lot better” than finding out

through the media. Still, he un-

derstood that this would not

have been p ossible because o f the

lockdown in p lace amid the coro-

navirus pandemic. He said he

plans to attend the sentencing.

Anjum Rahman, a spokes-

woman for New Zealand’s Islam-

ic Women’s Council, said that

while the guilty plea did not

deliver closure, “the main thing

is that we do not have to sit

through a whole court case and

hear a defense of atrocious acts.”

New Zealand has been con-

ducting an official inquiry into

the massacre, with agencies such

as the intelligence services ques-

tioned about the circumstances

leading to the atrocity. But much

evidence had been subject to

suppression orders to avoid j eop-

ardizing Ta rrant’s right to a fair

trial.

With Ta rrant’s guilty plea,

Rahman called Thursday for the

inquiry evidence to be made

public.

“Now that there isn’t a [trial],

there isn’t a reason to suppress

any evidence,” she said.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ard-

ern said the guilty plea would

“provide some relief to the many

people whose lives were shat-

tered by what happened on

March 15.”

[email protected]

BY EMANUEL STOAKES

CHRISTCHURCH, NeW ZealaNd
— Surprise, relief and a “mix of
emotions” greeted the news
Thursday that Brenton Ta rrant,
the man who had carried out
New Zealand’s worst peacetime
atrocity, had reversed his not-
guilty plea and was convicted on
all charges.
Ta rrant killed 51 worshipers
and injured dozens at two
mosques in Christchurch on
March 15 last year. The first of
the attacks was live-streamed on
the Internet.
T he Australian national was
charged with the highest num-
ber of murder counts brought
against an individual in New
Zealand’s history, to which a
terrorism offense and 40 counts
of attempted murder were add-
ed.
The reasons behind Ta rrant’s
surprise move to switch his plea
to guilty remain unclear; he had
previously denied culpability,
and a trial had been scheduled

for June. The news broke as New

Zealand began a nationwide

lo ckdown to curb the spread of

the novel coronavirus.

Appearing in Christchurch

High Court on T hursday by video

link from an Auckland prison, a

gaunt Ta rrant, 29, listened to the

court registrar read out the

charges and the names of the

dead. Two senior members of

Christchurch’s Muslim commu-

nity were present, although vic-

tims’ families and other survi-

vors did not attend.

Ta rrant, who could face life in

prison, was remanded into cus-

tody by Justice Cameron

Mander, the presiding judge, un-

til May 1 , by which time a date for

the sentencing would be set.

Attorneys for Ta rrant, New Zea-

land’s first convicted terrorist,

did not respond to a request for

comment.

The mosque attacks prompted

New Zealand’s government to

ban assault weapons, implement

a buyback of existing firearms

and ramp up surveillance. The

Relief in New Zealand

after guilty plea in attack

massacre also fueled questions

about whether intelligence and

security agencies had been suffi-

ciently rigorous in monitoring

far-right or white-supremacist

networks.

Jamal Green, spokesman for

Al Noor Mosque, which was

targeted in the attacks, said he

did not know in advance about

Ta rrant’s decision to plead guilty.

The reaction from the communi-

ty was “one of relief and great

surprise; tears of joy, even,”

Green said.

“It should be acknowledged,

however, that there will be a mix

of emotions,” he added. “This is

no easy joy or satisfaction. Every

community that has been a vic-

tim of hate and loss will recog-

nize a kind of emptiness when

their world has suffered in this

way.”

Graeme Edgeler, a Wellington-

based lawyer and legal commen-

lISA mAree WIllIAmS/AgeNce frANce-PreSSe/getty ImAgeS

A man adjusts flowers last week outside the Al Noor mosque in

Christchurch, New Zealand, where a man last year killed dozens of

people before heading to another mosque in the city to kill more.

BY ISABELLE KHURSHUDYAN

MOSCOW — Hundreds lined up,
standing far closer than any social
distancing advice, at the Kazan
Cathedral in St. Petersburg earli-
er this month for a visiting shrine
that the faithful believe contains
a relic of John the Baptist.
One by one, they pressed their
forehead to the shrine and kissed
it. A volunteer then wiped it with
a cloth.
Even as places of worship
across the globe have closed or
switched to online services amid
the coronavirus pandemic, some
in the Russian Orthodox Church
have insisted it will not stop in-
person services or try to block
traditions such as kissing icons.
The stance in Russia has been
followed by some other Orthodox
priests in Greece, Bulgaria and
across other Orthodox churches.
But Russia, the largest among the
various Orthodox churches, has

added influence, especially in Or-

thodox churches in Eastern Eu-

rope and the former Soviet repub-

lics.

Russia’s government, while

starting to impose closures in

other sectors, has so far largely

left the church alone, even as the

number of cases in Russia rises.

The country’s rates are still lower

than parts of Europe or the Unit-

ed States. Russia reported 840

confirmed cases Thursday, with

546 of those in Moscow, but the

past two days have seen the larg-

est spike.

St. Petersburg is the only city

that has banned visits to churches

next week, a nationwide paid hol-

iday that officials hope will lead to

citizens staying home.

The Moscow Patriarchate ad-

opted preventive guidelines last

week, including serving the tradi-

tional Communion drink with in-

dividual disposable spoons and

asking church personnel to wear

disposable gloves when giving

pieces of bread to worshipers.

Priests have been told to avoid

physical contact with parishio-

ners.

The practice of kissing the

cross at t he end of a liturgy is now

prohibited, but kissing icons is

still allowed — though they’re to

be disinfected after each person.

“There is no scientific data that

congregations could become

points of dissemination of infec-

tion,” Russian Orthodox Church

spokesman Vakhtang Kipshidze

said. “That is why at this stage we

consider that the measures that

have been undertaken by our

church [are] sufficient to provide

security for our believers.”

Religious congregations have

played a central role in some

coronavirus clusters.

A now-shut messianic church

in South Korea helped spark that

country’s epidemic last month. A

synagogue in New Rochelle, N.Y.,

became the epicenter of an out-

break earlier this month after the

congregation’s rabbi tested posi-

tive for the coronavirus.

In Louisiana, a Baton Rouge

pastor has defied the governor’s

order not to hold gatherings larg-

er than 50 people, with Sunday

services drawing about 1,000 peo-

ple.

But others have made conces-

sions. Catholic churches in Rome

have been closed for the past two

weeks. Iran canceled Friday

prayers this month. Saudi Arabia

banned citizens and other resi-

dents from performing the pil-

grimage in Mecca. All synagogues

in Israel were ordered closed

Wednesday.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobya-

nin announced the closure of all

restaurants, nonessential stores,

parks and bathhouses in the city

starting Saturday. He did not or-

der churches closed but wrote on

his website: “Being aware of the

feelings of Moscow believers, I

still recommend and ask them to

abstain from visiting religious

sites on these days.”

[email protected]

Svetlana Ivanova in moscow

contributed reporting.

Russian Orthodox Church holds to traditions even as coronavirus cases rise

OlgA mAltSeVA/AgeNce frANce-PreSSe/getty ImAgeS

A man kisses relics i n St. Petersburg’s Kazan Cathedral on March

15. The Russian Orthodox Church says it will not stop the practice.

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