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New Zealand terror offender released on parole

A New Zealand man, who was jailed for sharing the livestream from the Christchurch mosque attacks, is being released on parole.

Philip Neville Arps appears for sentencing in the Christchurch District Court.

Philip Neville Arps. Source: The Press Pool

A white supremacist jailed for sharing the video of the Christchurch mosque attacks will be released on parole on Wednesday night.

Philip Arps was sentenced to 21 months prison last June for sharing the footage taken by alleged terrorist Brenton Tarrant, including the slaughter of many Muslims during two Friday prayer services.

The man appeared at the Christchurch District Court on Wednesday afternoon, having served half of his term.

Judge Stephen O'Driscoll has placed the 45-year-old under electronic location monitoring and has banned him from any area where the Muslim community congregates.

The 44-year-old was originally arrested four days after the alleged gunman's 15 March rampage at two mosques in the South Island city - which resulted in the worst massacre in modern New Zealand history.

He pleaded guilty at the time to two charges of distributing objectionable material for sharing footage that was live-streamed to social media during the attack.

Christchurch District Court heard he distributed the raw footage to about 30 people and had another version that was modified to include crosshairs and a "kill count", the New Zealand Herald reported.

"This was in effect a hate crime against the Muslim community," Judge Stephen O'Driscoll said at the time.


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