Extremist was released from New Zealand jail despite fears – KIRO 7 News Seattle

WELLINGTON, New Zealand – (AP) – The New Zealand authorities detained an Islamic State Group-inspired man for three years after catching him with a hunting knife and extremist video – but at one point, despite serious fears, he would attack others , did they say there is nothing they can do to keep him behind bars.

From July onwards, the police followed the man’s every move for 53 days, an operation that around 30 officers worked on around the clock. Their fears were confirmed on Friday when the man walked into an Auckland supermarket, pulled a kitchen knife from a shop shelf, stabbed five people and seriously injured three.

Two other buyers were injured in hand-to-hand combat. As of Saturday, three of the victims remained in the hospital in critical condition and three others were in stable or moderate condition. The seventh person recovered at home. The youngest victim was a 29-year-old woman, the oldest a 77-year-old man.

Undercover officers monitoring the man right outside the supermarket took action when they saw shoppers running and heard screams, police said, and shot him dead within minutes of his attack starting. A viewer’s video records the sound of 10 shots fired in quick succession.

The attack highlighted flaws in New Zealand’s counterterrorism laws that experts say are too focused on punishing acts and inadequate to deal with conspiracies before they are carried out. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said lawmakers were on the verge of closing some of these loopholes when the attack took place. She promised changes to the law by the end of the month.

Police Commissioner Andrew Coster said the law they were working under required the man to take the first step.

“We may have an understanding of intent and ideology, and we may have a high level of concern,” said Coster. “But that’s not enough for us to take enforcement action.”

The authorities have not yet released the man’s name. It is said that he was a Sri Lankan citizen who came to New Zealand 10 years ago at the age of 22 on a student visa. He was first noticed by police in 2016 when he started posting support for terrorist attacks and violent extremism on Facebook.

The police confronted him twice, but he kept posting. In 2017 they arrested him at Auckland Airport. According to the authorities, he was on his way to Syria, presumably to join the uprising of the Islamic State. Police searches revealed that he had a hunting knife and prohibited propaganda material and was later released on bail. In 2018 he bought another knife, and the police found two videos of the Islamic State.

The man spent the next three years in prison after pleading guilty to various crimes and breaking bail. On new indictments in May, a jury found the man guilty of possession of objectionable videos on two cases, both showing images of the Islamic State group, including the group’s flag and a man in a black balaclava holding a semi-automatic weapon.

However, the videos did not show violent murders like some Islamic State videos and were not classified as the worst type of illegal material. High Court Judge Sally Fitzgerald described the contents as religious hymns sung in Arabic. She said the videos described being martyred on the battlefield by being killed for God’s cause.

A court report warned that the man had the motivation and resources to commit violence in the community and was at high risk. It described extreme attitudes, an isolated lifestyle and a sense of entitlement.

However, the judge decided to release the man and sentenced him to one year of surveillance at an Auckland mosque where a guide had confirmed his willingness to assist and support the man in his release.

The judge said she dismissed arguments that the man simply stumbled upon the videos and was trying to improve his Arabic. An aggravating factor is that he has been released on bail for previous, similar crimes and has tried to delete his Internet browser history.

Fitzgerald took note of the police’s extreme concerns and said they didn’t know if they were right but “I sincerely hope they are not.”

The judge also banned the man from owning any devices that could access the internet unless approved in writing by a probation officer and ordered that he grant access to any social media accounts he owned.

“I believe the risk that you will reoffend in a manner similar to the charges on which you were convicted remains high,” the judge concluded. “Your rehabilitation is accordingly important.”

Two months later, the man was traveling by train from a mosque in Glen Eden, a suburb of Auckland, where he lived, to a countdown supermarket in New Lynn, which was shadowed by police some distance away. Like the other customers, he pushed a shopping cart through the store for about 10 minutes. The shop was less crowded than normal due to coronavirus clearance regulations, and the undercover police held back so as not to be noticed.

At around 2:40 pm, the man started shouting “Allahu akbar” – which means “God is great” – and began stabbing random buyers, running people and screaming, unleashing an attack that shocked a nation.

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