Erdogan warns that Turkey would make New Zealand mosques attacker pay for his act if New Zealand did not

Turkey's president, Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday warned that Turkey would make the gunman who killed 50 people at two Christchurch mosques in New Zealand pay for his act if New Zealand did not and also called on New Zealand to restore the death penalty for the gunman.

28-year-old Australian citizen, Brenton Tarrant, a suspected white supremacist, was charged with murder on Saturday after a lone gunman opened fire at the two mosques during Muslim Friday prayers.

You heinously killed 50 of our siblings. You will pay for this. If New Zealand doesn’t make you, we know how to make you pay one way or another, Erdogan told an election rally of thousands in northern Turkey. He did not elaborate.

He said Turkey was wrong to have abolished the death penalty 15 years ago, and added that New Zealand should make legal arrangements so that the Christchurch gunman could face capital punishment.

If the New Zealand parliament doesn’t make this decision I will continue to argue this with them constantly. The necessary action needs to be taken, he said.

A senior Turkish security source said Tarrant entered Turkey twice in 2016 – for a week in March and for more than a month in September. Turkish authorities have begun investigating everything from hotel records to camera footage to try to ascertain the reason for his visits, the source said.