Christchurch terrorist gets special status for inquest

New Zealand’s worst mass murderer has been granted “interested party” status for the upcoming coronial inquest into the Christchurch terror attack.
That’s upset some in the Muslim community, including those denied government funding to attend the inquest hearing in person, who feel the terrorist’s rights are being put ahead of theirs.
An Australian man was sentenced to life in prison without parole for the 2019 attack on two city mosques, after killing 51 praying Muslims and injuring dozens more.
Deputy chief coroner Brigitte Windley is conducting an inquest into the deaths, and the hearing into the second phase of the inquiry starts next month. Matters to be covered include possible errors or failures by the police, who issued a firearms licence to the terrorist.
On August 27, Windley issued a decision that the terrorist’s conduct is “likely to be called into question” in this phase of the inquiry. In a minute issued the next day, the deputy chief coroner confirmed the terrorist’s participation in the hearing “will be subject to tight controls and her expectation that his participation will be remote”.
There are more than 140 interested parties in the coronial inquiry.
The Ministry of Justice’s chief operating officer Carl Crafar says submissions on the terrorist’s status for the hearing were invited from lawyers representing the immediate family of shuhada/martyrs and some of the bullet-injured survivors of the attack, plus unrepresented parties and the terrorist himself, through a standby lawyer.
“This provided interested parties with the opportunity to have input into this matter, with the assistance of their counsel, as is appropriate.”
Indian man Daanesh Kadier’s brother Ozair was killed at An-Nur Masjid/Al Noor Mosque. Daanesh tells Newsroom the terrorist has a right to know what’s being said about him.
While the perpetrator of the attack – “someone that has stolen the lives of many that we love” – can take part in the hearing, families like Kadiers have been denied funding to attend the hearing in person.
As previously reported, overseas family members of the shuhada were told last month they could not get grants through the victim assistance scheme to attend the hearing, after a decision made by Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith, on the Ministry of Justice’s advice.
“It sends the wrong message to the families of the shuhada,” Daanesh Kadier says.
Mariam Gul, of Pakistan, lost three family members at the Linwood Islamic Centre – her father Ghulam Hussain, mother Karam Bibi, and brother Muhammad Zeshan Raza.
Gul says news of the terrorist’s participation at the hearing was surprising. “That’s making me curious – why he wants to come, and would he be allowed to give any comments, or would he be silent?”
After attending two weeks of inquest hearings last year, she’s interested to hear how the terrorist was granted a firearms licence, and how the hearing will play out. “It’s my right to know how he became that beast, and how he was allowed to be free with all those firearms.”
Labour MP Megan Woods, a Cabinet minister in the previous government who has worked closely with the Muslim community, says: “It is causing a great deal of anxiety in the community that the terrorist has signalled his desire to be involved, and I know that that is weighing incredibly heavily.”
Already this year, the Government has ended the coordinated response to the terror attack, absorbing ongoing work into existing “work programmes”, and rejected some recommendations by the Royal Commission inquiry.
Shortly after the coronial inquiry opened in 2021, the terrorist was recognised as having interested party status. However, in a decision made by Windley in July last year, his status was revoked for all “first phase” issues, except issue seven – which was whether he had direct assistance from any other person to undertake the attack.
The terrorist asked to be removed as an interested party altogether and that was confirmed by Windley in August last year.  
Crafar, of the Justice Ministry, says: “Importantly, the July 2023 decision was expressly limited to first phase issues – his status in relation to subsequent phases of the inquiry would be considered in due course, as it has been now.”
Under the Coroners Act:
A “practice note” issued by the chief coroner in 2016 said interested parties were able to, among other things, make submissions, and invite the coroner to receive additional evidence.
The previous phase of the inquest traversed several issues, including the response by emergency services, whether any deaths could have been avoided, and why an emergency door at Al Noor Mosque was locked.
The second phase starts in Christchurch on October 19 and is scheduled to run for 19 days.