The killings at the Al Noor and Linwood mosques took place four years ago today. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
A man who repeatedly shared a link to the Christchurch terrorist's manifesto has been sentenced to nine months' intensive supervision.
The 29-year-old, whose name is suppressed, sent seven Facebook messages to associates containing a link to a full copy of the gunman's 15 March manifesto, in the weeks before the second anniversary of the mass shooting in 2021.
The manifesto was classified as objectionable by the Classification Office in March 2019, a week after the terrorist murdered 51 worshippers at the Al Noor and Linwood mosques.
The man pleaded guilty to one representative charge of distributing an objectionable publication, after sending five Facebook messages on 21 February, 2021, and a further two on 26 February and 3 March.
Today's sentence imposed by Christchurch District Court Judge Raoul Neave will run alongside the man's earlier two-year sentence of intensive supervision for threatening to car bomb the two mosques, delivered in December 2021.
The man posted threats on the website 4chan in February 2021, with a username referencing the Christchurch terrorist.
At the time, the man referred to the posts as "trolling" and said he held Islamophobic and anti-Semitic views, but barrister Anselm Williams today told the court his client's judicial monitoring reports were favourable and he seemed to have turned his life around.
The man met mosque attack survivor Farid Ahmed, who lost his wife in the massacre, and apologised in 2021.
Today marks the fourth anniversary of the terror attacks.
RNZ has been fighting to identify the man, but Judge Neave postponed a name suppression ruling until the completion of the defendant's sentence and the provision of an updated pyschiatrist's report.
