White Supremacist Behind Christchurch Mosque Attacks Given Life Imprisonment without Parole

And Haminah Tuyan, whose husband was killed by Tarrant, said she was "relieved and at peace" and was going home to pray.

"In our religion, after something like this we put our forehead on the ground and on the floor and we thank Allah profusely," she added.

'It doesn't bring back our son'

Hazim Al-Umari, father of 35-year-old Hussein who was shot dead by Brenton Tarrant while trying to protect others, said the life sentence was what he wanted.

"I am happy, happy for us. Hussein was brave, we know from the eyewitnesses and from the video that he tried to do something to protect the worshippers. He could have run away but he didn't," he said.

"It doesn't bring our son back but it ends this chapter."

The crowd of supporters outside the court was organized by Christchurch's Student Volunteer Army, which was founded as a community help organization following the devastating 2011 earthquakes in the city that killed 185 people.

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Its Chief Executive Sam Johnson said they wanted to "do something nice" for the Muslim community.

"You can see all New Zealanders here and many people supporting us and that is what makes us stronger and stronger," said Ahmede Yesuf, who was wounded at Al Noor.

New Zealand police commission Andrew Coster, meanwhile, said was "very satisfied" with the outcome.

"The sentence is the strictest that can be handed down in this country," Coster said.

But he deflected a question about whether there could be other potential terrorists in the community who, like Tarrant, had no criminal record and were not on any intelligence watchlist.

Coster said the official inquiry into the Christchurch mosque massacre was yet to be completed "and obviously there might be some findings and learnings from that and we're ready to receive any recommendations. We continue to work as vigilantly as we can." 

(Writers: CF/ARB/QAN, Agence France-Presse) 

Source: http://u.afp.com/3LoN