Authorities in Iceland say they have been unable to find a man named as registering a suspected Islamic State (IS) terrorist website with links to New Zealand.
The address in Auckland's Parnell listed on a suspected Islamic State terrorist website. Photo: RNZ / Kim Baker-Wilson
khilafah.is is registered to Azym Abdullah at an address on a Parnell side street where mail is sent and then forwarded to Wellington for processing via maildrop service Private Box.
Iceland's internet regulator, Internet in Iceland (ISNIC), has shut it down, with director Jens Pétur Jensen saying it was not known for sure if it was IS website but there were enough grounds to be almost certain it was.
The site showed a number of the videos showing beheadings, Mr Jensen said.
"Within the Arabic letters it says 'This is the news publishing website of the Islamic State'," he said.
"All the horrible videos of the executions of the reporters and many, many others, they were there."
The contact phone number for Mr Abdullah had a prefix for England.
It was the first time in 27 years ISNIC had moved to suspend a site after Mr Jensen said was significant public pressure.
Private Box director Gareth Foster said the situation was shocking and it had been contacted by a government agency over the website. He would not say which agency.
"To even think that some of them are being used for nefarious reasons is terrible," he said.
"We're horrified about it, and we do have a system to profile our customers in terms of risk assessment."
Mr Foster said the name Azym Abdullah did not match the name on his company's database.
He said the company would work with any authorities to find what relationship the account holder has with the website, if any.
An Islamic State militant. Photo: REUTERS / FBI