Noorullah Noori

Mullah Noorullah Noori (نورالله نوري ; born 1967) is the Minister of Borders and Tribal Affairs of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan since 7 September 2021.

He was also the Taliban's Governor of Balkh Province during their first administration (1996–2001).

Noorullah Noori spent more than 12 years in extrajudicial detention in the United States's Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.

The reports of civilian massacres were alleged to have occurred during the previous three years (1998-2001).

The two other Taliban leaders were Mullah Dadullah and Mullah Mohammed Fazil.

Fazil, like Noorullah, had already surrendered and would be sent to Guantanamo.

Former Taliban Ambassador to Pakistan Abdul Salam Zaeef described being flown to the United States Navy's amphibious warfare vessel, the USS Bataan, for special interrogation.

Zaeef wrote that the cells were located six decks down, were only 1 meter by 2 meters.

He wrote that the captives weren't allowed to speak with one another, but that he "eventually saw that Mullahs Fazal, Noori, Burhan, Wasseeq Sahib and Rohani were all among the other prisoners." Historian Andy Worthington, author of The Guantanamo Files, identified Noori as one of the men Zaeef recognized.

He identified Mullah Wasseeq as Abdul-Haq Wasiq, Mullah Rohani as Gholam Ruhani and Mullah Fazal as Mohammed Fazil.

Initially, the Bush administration asserted that they could withhold all the protections of the Geneva Conventions to captives from the war on terror.

This policy was challenged before the Judicial branch.

Critics argued that the U.S. could not evade its obligation to conduct competent tribunals to determine whether captives are, or are not, entitled to the protections of prisoner of war status.

Subsequently, the Department of Defense instituted the Combatant Status Review Tribunals.

The Tribunals, however, were not authorized to determine whether the captives were lawful combatants—rather they were merely empowered to make a recommendation as to whether the captive had previously been correctly determined to match the Bush administration's definition of an enemy combatant.

2001 press reports describe General Rashid Dostum bringing Noori with him when he toured the ruins the Qala-i-Jangi fortress, after over 400 captives died there in what is usually described as a failed prison uprising.

Noori was reported to have ordered the Taliban fighters in his jurisdiction to peacefully surrender to Dostum's Northern Alliance forces.

Noorullah has been listed by the United Nations 1267 Committee since January 25, 2001.

In the fall of 2001, when the United States, allied with the Northern Alliance and other anti-Taliban forces, started to use military force to seek out al Qaeda, Noori was one Taliban leader who is reported to have directed the Taliban fighters in his province to lay down their weapons and surrender.

In December 2001, shortly after the overthrow of the Taliban, Human Rights Watch called for a human rights tribunal to be convened against Noorullah and two other former Taliban Governors of Northern Provinces to investigate claims they had been responsible for alleged massacres of Hazara and Uzbek civilians.

Noorullah Noori arrived at Guantanamo on January 11, 2002, and was held there for 12 years.

The allegations used to justify his detention in Guantanamo asserted he was an interim Provincial Governor of Jalalabad, temporary governor of Mazari Sharif and Governor of Balkh Province.

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Mullah Noorullah Noori's Combatant Status Review Tribunal, on August 8, 2004.

The memo listed the following allegations against him:

"a. The detainee is a member of the Taliban.

b. The detainee participated in military operations against the coalition.

Noori chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.

Farida Kuchi, a Kuchi nomad tribeswoman who ran as a candidate for the Wolesi Jirga in 2005, described her delivery of a list of 1000 Kuchi stranded in an impromptu refugee camp to then Governor of Balkh Noori as the beginning of her political activism in 1998.

Fareeda told Carlotta Gall, of the New York Times that Noori accepted her list, and forwarded to humanitarian agencies, and aid did arrive.

On March 3, 2006, in response to a court order from Jed Rakoff the Department of Defense published a five-page summarized transcript from his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.

Detainees who were determined to have been properly classified as "enemy combatants" were scheduled to have their dossier reviewed at annual Administrative Review Board hearings.

The Administrative Review Boards weren't authorized to review whether a detainee qualified for POW status and they weren't authorized to review whether a detainee should have been classified as an "enemy combatant".

They were authorized to consider whether a detainee should continue to be detained by the United States because they continued to pose a threat—or whether they could safely be repatriated to the custody of their home country, or whether they could be set free.

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Noorullah Noori's first annual Administrative Review Board.

The following primary factors favor continued detention

"a. Commitment

b. Connections/Associations

Throughout the fall of 2011 and the winter of 2012, the United States conducted peace negotiations with the Taliban and widely leaked was that a key sticking point was the ongoing detention of Noorullah and four other senior Taliban.

Negotiations hinged on a proposal to send the five men directly to Doha, Qatar, where they would be allowed to set up an official office for the Taliban.

Noori was released from the detention camp on May 31, 2014, in a prisoner exchange that involved Bowe Bergdahl and the Taliban Five, and flown to Qatar.