Brenton Tarrant, the Australian-born attacker who killed 51 Muslim worshipers at two mosques in Christchurch, traveled extensively around the world, including India, where he spent nearly three months, before moving to New Zealand to carry out the worst massacre in the world. country in 2019, according to a detailed report on the shootings released Tuesday.
Five indigenous people were among those killed in the terrorist attack on March 15 last year that also injured dozens and shook New Zealand, considered one of the most peaceful countries in the world.
The 792-page report from the Royal Commission of Inquiry notes that after leaving school, the 30-year-old attacker worked as a personal trainer at a local gym until 2012, when he suffered an injury.
“He never went back to work in paid employment. Instead, he lived on the money he had received from his father and the income from investments made with him … With his father’s money, the individual traveled a lot. First, in 2013, he explored New Zealand and Australia and then, between 2014 and 2017, he traveled extensively around the world, ”he said.
Between April 15, 2014 and August 17, 2017, the individual traveled extensively and always alone, except for his trip to North Korea as part of a tour group.
“The longest visit the person made to any country was to India, where they stayed between November 21, 2015 and February 18, 2016. Countries they visited for periods of about a month or more included China, Japan , Russia, South Korea, among others ”, said the report that took about 18 months to compile.
The investigation report did not provide details of what Tarrant was doing in India during his nearly three-month stay in India.
However, The New Zealand Herald reported that there was no evidence that he met extremist groups while monitoring, investigating potential targets, or conducting any training on a report.
The investigation does not believe that the trip fueled his racist views to any great extent, but concluded: “Simply put, he traveled a lot because he could and had nothing better to do. He said.
But he visited right-wing forums on the Internet, subscribed to right-wing YouTube channels and “read a lot about immigration, far-right political theories and historical struggles between Christianity and Islam,” he added.
On the attacker’s upbringing in Australia, the Royal Commission of Inquiry report notes that he was marked by a number of stressors, including separation from his parents and his mother’s subsequent relationship with an abusive partner.
He expressed “racist ideas” from a young age and was also an avid Internet user, he said.
“In February 2017, he booked flights to New Zealand to arrive in Auckland on August 17, 2017, and then to Dunedin on August 20, 2017. We see these activities as the first manifestations of his terrorist intent,” the report says. details Tarrant’s extensive world travels.
“We are satisfied that in January 2017 the individual had a terrorist attack in mind. We are also satisfied that when the individual came to live in New Zealand on August 17, 2017, it was with a fully developed terrorist ideology based on their adoption of the Great Replacement theory and its associated beliefs that immigration, particularly of immigrants Muslims, in Western countries are an existential threat to Western society and that the appropriate response (at least for him) was violence, ”he said.
In a 74-page manifesto that the attacker had posted online, he described himself as a white supremacist seeking to avenge attacks in Europe by Muslims.
Tarrant was sentenced in August to life in prison without the possibility of parole after pleading guilty to 92 counts of terrorism, murder and attempted murder.
The report contains interviews with hundreds of people, including security agencies, Muslim community leaders, international experts, and officials in England, Norway and Australia, along with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who was praised globally for her compassionate response to the attack.
The prime minister quickly banned the sale of high-capacity semi-automatic weapons used in the attack on two mosques in the South Island city and launched a global movement against extremism online.
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