Christchurch gunman sent manifesto to PM before attack

Christchurch: The New Zealand Prime Minister’s Office said on Saturday that it received a copy of a “manifesto” from the alleged gunman less than 10 minutes before the attacks began at the two Christchurch mosques on Friday, along with about 70 other recipients.

Other politicians on the mailing list included National leader Simon Bridges and Parliament Speaker Trevor Mallard, The New Zealand Herald reported.

Brenton Harrison Tarrant, a 28-year-old Australian, is the primary suspect in Friday’s that killed 49 people.

Most of the other recipients in the email were media, both domestic and international, a spokesman for Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said. He added that the gunman didn’t say in the email that “this is what I am about to do” so “there was no opportunity to stop it”.

“It does not set out what he was about to do. It was written as if it had occurred, to explain what obviously was about to play out”, an official said.

The email had gone to Ardern’s generic address. The spokesman said that it was an email account managed by Ardern’s office and not her personal one.

According to the report, the person in the Prime Minister’s Office who opened the email followed standard procedure and referred it to Parliamentary security. Security then referred it to the police.

The report said that Ardern will not release the contents of the manifesto, the time it was received or even what was in the subject line.

Published on: Mar 16, 2019 at 15:28 IST

IANS