Editorial: Why six-week-long inquest into Christchurch mosque attack is so deeply needed

Al Noor Mosque in Christchurch. Photo / Mark Mitchell

EDITORIAL

The world seems a very different place from the autumn afternoon in 2019 when 51 people were massacred and 40 others wounded at two Christchurch mosques.

Since that dark day on March 15, 2019, the Covid-19 pandemic has shaken the world, putting nations into lockdown. Full-scale war has broken out in Europe - and possibly in the Middle East - and inflation has made a global comeback to become the leading concern for many people.

Some have now asked - after a Royal Commission of Inquiry, and the gunman’s sentencing to life in prison without parole - why this six-week-long inquest is needed.

Deputy Chief Coroner Brigitte Windley, who is responsible for the inquest, has said the “atrocities” of the March 15 attack were unprecedented in New Zealand - as was the nature and scale of the coronial inquiry.

She said it was unique that an inquest followed both a criminal prosecution and a Royal Commission - both of which had a broad mandate to “investigate and make findings about the attack, together with recommendations directed at preventing future attacks”.

Coroners are like judges - each is a qualified lawyer appointed to a judicial office and tasked with looking into unexpected, violent or suspicious deaths to find out what happened.

They can make comments or recommendations on whether something can be done to prevent similar deaths happening in future.

“Some have expressed particular concern with the fact that the Royal Commission’s investigation was largely undertaken in private and that together with orders that now apply to the evidence it received, they have not been able to see and consider the evidence behind the Royal Commission’s findings, and feel that important questions remain unanswered,” Windley said.

The inquest, too, is the first opportunity for those impacted by the terror attack to access information that had not previously been available to them during the criminal prosecution of the gunman or the Royal Commission.

The level of interest from survivors and the families of the victims shows just how raw the massacre remains for them - and also underscores just why the coroner’s inquest is so deeply needed.

More than 600 people are registered to attend the hearing in person at some stage over the next six weeks. A further 100 people have registered to watch the hearing online via a livestream.

Aya Al-Umari, whose only brother, Hussain Al-Umari, died in the attack, hopes the lingering questions she has about the attack will be answered through the inquest.

“Could they have been saved? Were the right processes followed? Were the right protocols followed correctly? Was there enough time to save anyone?” she asked.

“And whether there were any failures in those actions.”

Al-Umari, the families of others who lost our lives during this monstrous event, deserve these answers.

And New Zealand needs to do its best to try to find them.