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The hearing at Christchurch High Court is expected to last four days
The Australian white supremacist who killed 51 Muslim traitors at two mosques in New Zealand last year will face survivors of his attack on Monday in a conviction.
The Australian Brenton Tarrant is likely to be donated for life.
Tarrant pleaded guilty in March and was convicted of 51 murders, 40 attempted murders and one charge of terrorism.
He is expected to appear in court for a four-day hearing at which survivors and family members of victims will speak.
The hearing will take place at the courthouse in Christchurch, the city where Tarrant carried out the attacks in March 2019. The first session will start on Monday at 10:00 (22:00 GMT on Sunday).
Tarrant, 29, from New South Wales, had earlier denied the allegations and was due for a trial in June before reversing his plea. He is currently serving a minimum sentence of 17 years, but Justice Cameron Mander, the judge of the Supreme Court presiding over the case, has the power to sentence him to a full life without parole – a sentence never before seen in New Zealand has been imposed.
More than 60 people will give personal impact statements about understanding the victim. Some have traveled abroad and undergone a two-week coronavirus quarantine to participate.
- Who were the victims?
- How the attacks exploded
Dr Hamimah Tuyan, whose husband Zekeriya Tuyan died nearly seven weeks after he was shot at the An-nur Masjid Mosque, flew out of Singapore in time to be quarantined for the hearing.
Dr Tuyan told the BBC she had been waiting to write an impact statement to read for Tarrant, fearing it would be “of his narcissism”, but eventually decided she would.
“I haven’t really had time to think about how I feel about him or about how I see him in the flesh,” she said. “I hope I will be cool, calm and collected.”
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Hundreds of others will have to watch the proceedings on video feeds from other courtrooms in the city to enable social distancing measures. The procedures will not be shown live to the general public.
Justice Mander said in an order issued this month that the court would have the power to restrict the publication of statements about victims if necessary.
Tarrant’s attacks on both mosques, parts of which he lived online, sent shock waves around the world and prompted New Zealand to make rapid changes to its gun laws.
Less than a month after the shooting, the country’s parliament voted 119 to 1 over reform banning military-style semi-automatic weapons, as well as parts that could be used to build banned firearms.
The government offered to compensate owners of newly-illegal weapons in a repurchase scheme.
