Accused Christchurch gunman pleads not guilty to all charges

The man accused of killing 51 people during a shooting spree in March at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, has pleaded not guilty to all charges levelled against him.

A lone gunman armed with semi-automatic weapons attacked Muslims attending Friday prayers in Christchurch on New Zealand’s South Island on March 15, killing 51 people in the country’s worst peace-time mass shooting. The attacker broadcast the shooting live on Facebook.

A lawyer for Australian-born Brenton Tarrant, 28, said on Friday his client pleaded not guilty to 51 charges of murder, 40 attempted murders and one charge of committing a terrorist act. This is the first time a terrorism charge has been brought in New Zealand.

Tarrant was not in court in person in Christchurch; instead he appeared via a video link from a maximum-security prison where he's being held in Auckland, New Zealand's largest city.

Tarrant, a self-proclaimed white supremacist, is suspected of acting alone during the March 15 atrocity - New Zealand's worst peacetime mass shooting.

He is accused of using modified semi-automatic weapons to massacre Muslims at Christchurch's Al Noor and Linwood mosques during Friday prayers. The attack was live-streamed from a head-mounted camera.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern introduced tough new firearm laws banning semi-automatic weapons after the attack.

More than 100 family members of victims - and a few people who were shot but survived the attacks - were in court.  Most, throughout the hearing, looked intently at the screens showing Tarrant.

High Court Justice Cameron Mander said Tarrant was fit to stand trial after the court ordered him to undergo a mental health assessment at a previous hearing on April 5.

“No issue arises regarding the defendant’s fitness to plead, to instruct counsel, and to stand his trial. A fitness hearing is not required,” Mander said in a minute released to the media after Friday’s hearing.

The court lifted an order last week suppressing the publication of pictures of Tarrant. An interim suppression order barring the publication of the identity of survivors also lapsed and will not be reinstated.