Police have arrested a 19-year-old after threatening a mosque in New Zealand. As the police said, the teenager had spread his „hideous“ threat online. In an encrypted messenger service, he is said to have shared a picture of a man with a balaclava in a car in front of the Al Noor Mosque in Christchurch.
In addition, he provided a text with a threat and a gun emoji. „This type of representation has no place in New Zealand – it is hideous and will not be tolerated,“ said Canterbury region chief of police, John Price.
Long sentence awaits
The teenager was arrested after a house search in Christchurch, where the police confiscated a vehicle, among other things. If the New Zealand censorship authorities classify his image as inadmissible, he may face a prison sentence of up to 14 years.
On March 15, 2019, an Australian right-wing extremist killed 51 people at the Al Noor and Linwood Mosques in Christchurch and broadcast the attack in real time on the Internet. In the first 24 hours after the attack, the online network Facebook had to delete 1.5 million copies of the video. A man who distributed the video of the attack was sentenced to six months in prison.
