European investigators are digging deeper into possible links between far-right ideologues and the suspected New Zealand mosque attacker, who sent at least two donations to an anti-Muslim group with branches around Europe.
The probes currently concentrate on any money trails leading back to the suspect, 28-year-old Brenton Tarrant, who was charged on Friday in New Zealand with 50 counts of murder and 39 counts of attempted murder in the March 15 bloodshed at two mosques in Christchurch.
But it also reflects wider examinations into a new crop of far-right groups whose rise has paralleled the increasing use of anti-immigrant fears to buoy right-wing political parties in the West.
Among the groups most adept at stitching together the various strands of nativist anger and suspicion is the French-rooted Identitarian Movement, which promotes an alarmist message that Muslim migrants will one day overrun Western culture.
The Identitarian Movement apparently echoed Tarrant’s anger toward Muslim migrants, and is now at the centre of international investigations as authorities try to piece together the elements that shaped Tarrant’s views.
A spokesman for the French wing of the Identitarian Movement told The Washington Post on Thursday that the suspect, Tarrant, had sent an unsolicited donation of about $1,200 in September 2017.
That is the second European group to acknowledge receiving money from the suspected attacker. Last month, Austrian authorities raided the home of an Identitarian-linked leader, Martin Sellner, who was given a donation of nearly $1,700 by Tarrant more than a year ago.
In Germany, meanwhile, officials said they were pursuing their own probes into other possible ties between Tarrant and German extremists.
In New Zealand, police are looking into possible ties between Tarrant and a Ukranian-born man, Troy Dubovskiy, 54, who apparently killed himself on March 27 during a standoff with authorities. Police say a search of Dubovskiy’s home near Christchurch uncovered firearms, ammunition and “violent extremist content.”
It remains unclear, however, if Dubovskiy and Tarrant had any direct contact.