MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 30th September, 2021) New Zealand has adopted a new counter-terrorism legislation broadening the scope of the country's criminal laws in the wake of a recent terrorist attack in the city of Auckland, the government said on Thursday.
On September 3, a Sri Lanka's national stabbed seven people in a supermarket in Auckland and then was shot dead by the police. The attacker had been a person of interest for New Zealand's security agencies over suspicions of illegally obtaining a refugee status, which he was granted in 2013.
"The Bill strengthens our laws to fight the ever evolving nature of terrorism and closes longstanding gaps in our counter terrorism legislation to better protect New Zealanders," Justice Minister Kris Faafoi was quoted as saying in a government statement.
The key major change in the legislation is qualifying planning or preparation for a terrorist attack as a criminal offense, Faafoi noted. In addition, the definition of such an attack now expands to an "intention to intimidate, rather than to induce terror, as is defined in the current law."
The law, which the parliament passed in the third reading earlier in the day, will come into force on October 4.
