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NZ tightens terror laws following recent IS-attack

Published

3 years ago

September 30, 2021

New Zealand has passed a new security law to criminalise preparing a terror attack

The new law tightens a loophole that was exposed by a man who recently went on to conduct a mass stabbing in the country’s most populated city.

The country has for months been moving to strengthen its security laws amid heightened fears of lone wolf terror attacks.

A most recent attack however has forced the new law to be rushed through its parliament after Aathil Mohamed Samsudeen stabbed and wounded seven people in a supermarket in Auckland earlier this month.

QUEENSTOWN, NEW ZEALAND – MAY 31: New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern during the Australia-New Zealand Leaders Meeting on May 31, 2021. Image: File

With the new law now enacted, it is now an offence to plot and prepare a terror attack

Kris Faafoi, New Zealand’s Minister of Justice, says the new law brings security in line with most other countries.

“The nature of terrorism has changed. Across the world there are more lone actors, rather than larger organised groups,”
Faafoi said in an emailed statement.

The new law comes less than a month after police shot dead Samsudeen, a 32-year-old Sri Lankan national, moments after he launched his attack.

Samsudeen had been convicted and imprisoned for about three years before being released in July.

New Zealand had in 2020 unsuccessfully sought to charge Samsudeen with terrorism offences after he bought a hunting knife and was found with Islamic State videos.

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