Australia PM open to taking mosque killer

CANBERRA, Australia — Australia’s prime minister said Friday that he was open to allowing an Australian white supremacist who slaughtered 51 worshippers at two New Zealand mosques to serve his life sentence in his homeland but the victims’ wishes would be paramount.

A transfer would buck international convention and require changes to the laws in both countries, but proponents of the idea have called for Australia to take responsibility for imprisoning Brenton Harrison Tarrant and take the costs off New Zealanders.

Tarrant, 29, was sentenced Thursday to life in prison without parole for the March 2019 attacks in Christchurch. He is the first person to be denied the possibility of parole in New Zealand and has enhanced security in prison.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said that while New Zealand has made no official request, the Australian government was open to taking him back.

“I’m pleased that that terrorist will never be released anywhere ever again,” Morrison said. “We’ll have an open discussion and look at the issues around this.”

New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters is among the proponents.

“Given this unprecedented circumstance and all the regard to the cost of looking after the victims in our country who survived and their families and also the 50 million New Zealand dollar plus ($33 million) downstream in real terms of providing safety for this terrorist, then the sound, reasonable, logical thing to do would be to ask Australia to step up,” Peters said.

Tarrant was a legal resident of New Zealand, and international practice is for criminals to serve time in the jurisdictions where their crimes were committed.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has shown little enthusiasm for a transfer.