Police have arrested two people following an online threat against two Christchurch mosques, Marc Daalder reports
Christchurch police say two people arrested over an online threat against two mosques are being cooperative.
One of the people arrested, a 27-year-old man, has been charged with threatening to kill. The other was released.
On Sunday, a threat to attack the two mosques targeted in the 2019 terror attack with car bombs was posted to the anonymous message board 4chan. Police said in a statement that they were responding to a threat made on the same site.
The arrests happened after two addresses in Christchurch were raided. The Armed Offenders Squad attended the raids "as a precaution", police said.
The poster of the 4chan threat claimed to be a South African immigrant living in Christchurch. They wrote messages glorifying the terrorist who pled guilty to perpetrating the 2019 attack and said they planned to livestream their own actions on March 15 this year. They also made anti-Semitic and Islamophobic posts in the same thread.
"We take all threats of this nature seriously and we are working closely with our Muslim community," Canterbury District Commander Superintendent John Price said.
"Any messages of hate or people wanting to cause harm in our community will not be tolerated - it's not the Kiwi way."
Activist group Paparoa, which tracks extremists in New Zealand, said it indirectly reported the person behind the threat to the police. The activists said in a statement that the individual was radicalised online and didn't appear to be a member of any known white supremacist groups in New Zealand.
"The online forums have pushed [the person] towards an interest in accelerationist stochastic terrorism," the group said.
Price said at a press conference on Thursday evening that police had acted in response to a tip-off from a member of the public via Crimestoppers.
Asked whether police would treat the incident as a terror threat, Price said police considered it a criminal matter and would later look at possible hate crime charges. It is unclear what he meant by this, as people cannot be charged with hate crimes in New Zealand. Changing this was one of the recommendations of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the March 15 terror attack, but the Government has said it will not progress this recommendation as a priority.
Police said enquiries into the threat were ongoing and encouraged people who see or hear anything concerning to contact Crimestoppers or the non-emergency 105 line.
Ahead of the anniversary of the March 15 shootings last year, a member of the white supremacist group Action Zealandia made a terror threat against Al-Noor Mosque. The man, Sam Brittenden, pled guilty in July for refusing to give police his phone passcode when he was raided.
