A Christchurch man has been charged after he allegedly threatened to kill Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
The 35-year-old man was granted a registrar’s remand at the Christchurch District Court on Thursday. He has been granted interim name suppression until his next appearance.
According to court documents the alleged offence dates back to March 11, 2019, when the accused was in Australia.
The maximum penalty for a charge of threatening to kill is seven years’ imprisonment.
This is not the first time threats have been made against Ardern. Last month a 34-year-old man appeared in the Wellington District Court after he allegedly threatened to kill the New Zealand prime minister.
In 2020, a man pleaded not guilty to a charge of sending threatening emails to Ardern between October 2019 and January 2020.
Also in 2020, an Australian man was jailed for making threats against Ardern, Muslims and mosques. Cormac Patrick Rothsey pleaded guilty in a Newcastle court to charges of posting extremist threats on social media in September 2019.
In November 2019, a 20-year-old man from Northern Ireland was sentenced to 100 hours of community service after sending death threats to Ardern and London Mayor Sadiq Khan.
Matthew Burns, from County Armagh, admitted sending Ardern a photo five days after the March 15 Christchurch mosque attacks of a gun with a silencer with the message: “You're next.”
