Osama bin Laden’s right-hand man, Ayman al-Zawahri, posed as a businessman selling leather goods during visits to New Zealand to raise support for the al Qaeda terror network, it was claimed on Sunday.

Bin Laden’s biographer, Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir, said in interviews with the Australian press that Zawahri, thought to be a key planner of the September 11 attack, visited the country twice between 1992 and 1996, examining it as a possible safe haven.

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