Christchurch: Man sentenced for spreading terror video

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ANKARA (AA) - A white supremacist who shared a video of the Christchurch shooting in New Zealand was sentenced on Tuesday to 21 months in jail.

Philip Neville Arps, 44, who in the past expressed praise for German Nazi war criminal Rudolf Hess, was charged on two counts by Christchurch District Court, Wellington-based Stuff.co.nz reported.

The charges were related to his alleged distribution of an objectionable live-streamed video of the murders on March 15 at two local mosques.

On March 15, at least 51 innocent Muslims were gunned down by white supremacist Brenton Tarrant, 28, who has been slapped with 51 counts of murder, besides 40 attempted murder charges - along with that of the terrorism act.

An Australian national, Tarrant live streamed his act of terror on social media.

"Arps admitted the day after the March 15 attack he sent away the video to have it modified with cross-hairs and a ‘kill count’, and distributed the unmodified video to 30 associates," the report said.

A former member of the Arian Legion far-right group, Arps is reported to be unrepentant for his crime.

He is being put into solitary confinement for 23 hours a day.

The report said police had acted against 13 people for possession or distribution of the video.

During the hearing, Judge Stephen O'Driscoll said it was clear Arps held "strong views towards the Muslim community," and that he interrupted to express that his views "applied to religion as a whole."

"He had acted with cruelty and callousness in distributing the video the day after the terror attack while families were still waiting to hear whether relatives had been killed," the judge observed while signing the punishment order.