The perpetrator of the massacre of the two mosques appeared before the Supreme Court in Christchurch, New Zealand, on Monday in the first hearing of the verdict on charges of killing 51 people.

The attorney general said during the hearing that the 29-year-old Australian citizen Brenton Tarrant, accused of carrying out the massacre, spent years preparing for his crime, and carefully studied his plan to inflict the largest number of victims.

Prosecutor Barnaby Howes added that the defendant told the police after his arrest that he wanted to create fear among the Muslim population.

The prosecution revealed that the defendant intended to attack a third mosque, and that he wanted to burn mosques after killing worshipers.

The prosecutor stated that Tarrant expressed his regret that he had not killed more people, adding that the accused "wanted to spread fear in the issuance of what he described as invaders, including the Muslim population or non-European immigrants in general."

The family of Hussein Al-Omari, one of the victims of the massacre, testifies before the court (Reuters)

The court allowed some of the massacre survivors to enter the courtroom and confront Tarrant for the first time since the attack.

The accused had pleaded guilty to 51 counts of murder, 40 counts of attempted murder, and one count of committing a terrorist act.

The accused attacked worshipers in two mosques in Christchurch, at the time of Friday prayers in mid-March of last year, and broadcast his crime live on Facebook. The prosecutor indicated that the police stopped him while he was on his way to the neighboring city of Ashburton to carry out a third attack.

The court listens to the testimonies of 66 survivors of the massacre (Reuters)

It is expected that the judge of the Supreme Court, held in Christchurch, will hear the testimonies of 66 survivors of the attack, in sessions over a period of 4 days, before the verdict is pronounced. Tarrant, who represents himself without a defense team, will be allowed to speak before the verdict.

A murder conviction requires a mandatory life sentence. A judge can issue a sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, a ruling not previously issued in New Zealand.

The authorities did not allow the proceedings of the hearings to be broadcast live, and restrictions will be imposed on what the media can publish.