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WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) – A court report on a man in New Zealand who was inspired by the Islamic State group warned that he had the motivation and resources to commit violent acts in the community and that he was at high risk.
The report described the man as a man with extreme attitudes, an isolated lifestyle, and a sense of entitlement.
However, a judge’s job in July was to convict the man for the relatively minor crimes he had committed at the time, not any potential future crimes. She decided to release him under the supervision of a mosque leader who promised to try to help him.
The authorities’ fears were confirmed on Friday when the man walked into an Auckland supermarket, grabbed a knife and stabbed six people and seriously injured three.
Since the police remained deeply concerned about the man, they monitored and followed him around the clock. They were able to intervene and shoot him within 60 seconds of starting his attack.
The court documents begin to tell the story of why the man the authorities feared so much was allowed to roam free.
However, much of the man’s legal history – including his name – is still subject to court orders preventing its publication.
Other pieces of the puzzle are likely to lie in this hidden legal history, including flaws in New Zealand’s terrorism laws that experts believe are too focused on punishing crimes and inadequate in handling conspiracies.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she was trying to get the man’s full legal history publicly available as soon as possible.
Ardern said the man, a Sri Lankan national, first moved to New Zealand in 2011 and began surveillance by security agencies in 2016.
The man spent three years in prison for unspecified reasons, according to a July verdict.
That year, a jury found him guilty of possession of objectionable videos on two counts, 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.
High Court Judge Sally Fitzgerald described the contents as nasheeds, or religious hymns, sung in Arabic. She said the videos described being martyred on the battlefield by being killed for Allah’s sake.
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.
However, the videos did not show violent murders like some Islamic State videos and were not classified as the worst type of illegal material.
The judge took note of the police’s extreme concerns and said they did not know if they were right, but “I sincerely hope they are not.”
In the end, Fitzgerald sentenced the man to a year of surveillance at an Auckland mosque where a leader had confirmed his willingness to assist and support the man with his release.
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 traveled from the mosque to the Countdown Supermarket in the suburb of Glen Eden, shadowed by police officers for special tactics. Then he unleashed an attack that shocked a nation.
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