Court of Appeal Refuses to Release Mosque Gunman's Appeal Documents
27 May 2025. The New Zealand Reporter. This article: the Court of Appeal refuses to release 2 affidavits, which contain references to Brenton Tarrant's manifesto.
Court of Appeal Justice, David Collins, has refused The NZR access to the appeal documents filed on behalf of convicted murderer Brenton Tarrant.
Source: Radio NZ/ Samuel Rillstone.
Tarrant appealed his convictions and sentence to the Court of Appeal on 3 December 2022. The court has yet to set a hearing date.
“Interesting that part of the reason given is that the manifesto is suppressed, it suggests that maybe the affidavit is being used as an attempt to further promote his ideology”
Byron C. Clark, author of the book ‘Fear’ and Feijoa Dispatch
It was previously revealed to The NZR that the Crown had spent 874.76 hours in relation to his appeal. A further 990.2 hours had already been used up prior to that.
The NZR also learned the public costs stemming from Tarrant’s rampage had surpassed $42 million. This figure does not include all Ministry of Justice costs.
Now, well into the third year since Tarrant filed his appeal, the court has refused access to his appeal notice, as well as a signed affidavit and unsigned affidavit.
The unsigned affidavit is likely to be Tarrant’s manifesto.
Under the Senior Courts (Access to Documents) Rules 2017, they do not form part of the “formal court record”.
On 15 May, Crown lawyers M. Laracy, B. Hawes, and A J Ewing opposed the release of the affidavits but not the appeal notice.
Tarrant’s lawyers, who have name suppression, opposed the request in full.
The Crown lawyers gave two grounds for opposition.
Its first was that “the Rules make clear the public interest in publication of evidence before any hearing will be lower than during or after the hearing.”
The second related to Tarrant’s manifesto.
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