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John Kirk-Anderson / Stuff
Philip Neville Arps during a previous court appearance in 2019.
White supremacist Philip Neville Arps has been banned from within 100 meters of a Christchurch mosque after repeatedly visiting a homebrew store next door.
Judge Ian Mill said Arps’ continued presence in the area would profoundly affect the Linwood Mosque congregation given the trauma it had already inflicted on the Muslim community.
Arps, 45, was sentenced to 21 months in jail last year after he sent the video of the Christchurch terror attack to 30 people and asked a friend to modify it by adding a cross and a “death count.”
He was released in January under strict conditions, which he unsuccessfully opposed at the time, including a ban on entering or loitering near any mosque in New Zealand.
READ MORE:
* White supremacist Philip Neville Arps was told to ‘check himself’ in court
* White supremacist Philip Arps was in a homebrew store when he was arrested by police.
* White supremacist Philip Arps is unable to fight his release conditions.
Arps appeared in Christchurch District Court on Monday, where the Department of Corrections tried to impose another release condition that prohibited him from going within 100 meters of the Linwood Islamic Center and Masjid An-Nur (Al Noor Mosque) on Deans Ave .
Corrections attorney Claire Boshier said that while Arps was already banned from loitering near mosques, she had been pushing the boundaries by regularly visiting a homebrew shop next to the Linwood Mosque.
RNZ
A far-right extremism expert says the prison sentence for a man who distributed the video of the mosque massacre is unlikely to be an impediment to other white supremacists. (First published June 2019)
In August, Arps was arrested and charged after visiting the store, which is only 17 meters from the mosque. The charge was later dropped.
Boshier said Arps’ regular visits to the store undermined his current release conditions, which were imposed to protect the Muslim community.
He said that a 100-meter exclusion zone around the two Christchurch mosques that were the target of the March 15 terror attack would address this problem.
A probation officer assigned to the Arps case told the court he was not loitering “according to the legal definition of the word,” meaning an exclusion zone was needed around mosques.
“When we originally requested this [release] condition, it was not known that Mr. Arps would regularly visit a place so close to the mosque, ”he said.
MARK MITCHELL / NZME
Arps, photographed in Christchurch District Court in 2019, is fighting Corrections over his release conditions.
He said there were concerns that Arps was close to members of the Muslim community, as a halal butcher shop had recently opened in the same block of stores as the homebrew shop.
He had previously indicated that he would like to visit the butcher shop, he said.
The parole officer said he found it unusual for someone who claimed not to consume alcohol to frequent a homebrew store.
“When I tried to strike up a conversation with Mr. Arps about his drinking, … Arps indicated that he was extremely offended by that line of questions because as a Muslim he does not consume alcohol.”
Boshier said Arps’ claim to have converted to the Muslim faith “was not taken seriously.”
“Mr. Arps has shown that his abusive behavior and hatred of particular parts of our community continues.”
Judge Mill said the additional condition would do little to impede Arps’ freedom of movement and that he could still source home-made products elsewhere.
John Kirk-Anderson / Stuff
Arps during a previous court appearance in 2019. To his right is his attorney, Anselm Williams.
However, it refused to include Masjid An-Nur in the new condition because there was no evidence that Arps approached that mosque.
The judge said the condition prohibiting Arps from approaching any mosque in New Zealand was sufficient to protect the community at Masjid An-Nur.
After the court adjourned the session, Arps commented out loud to his attorney that the judge’s decision was “weak and worthless.”
Arps’ strict release conditions were imposed in January in response to letters he sent from prison and phone calls he made while incarcerated.
The letters and calls, which were monitored by Corrections, raised concerns about the risk Arps would pose to the community once he was released.
The content of the letters and phone calls was suppressed by the court.
Other conditions imposed by Corrections included having Arps monitored electronically, prohibited in certain areas, prohibited from having contact with anyone in the Muslim community, and prohibited from possessing or using firearms, including air rifles.
