Norullah Noori

Who is Norullah Noori?

Mullah Norullah Noori is a citizen of Afghanistan held in extrajudicial detention in the United States's Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number is 6. Intelligence analysts estimated he was born in 1967 in Shajoie, Afghanistan.

Norullah Noori was the Taliban's Governor of Balkh Province. 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.

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

Norullah Noori arrived at Guantanamo on January 11, 2001, and has been held there for 11 years, 6 months, and 8 days. The allegations used to justify his detention in Guantanamo assert he was an interim Provincial Governor—of Jalalabad [sic], temporary governor of Mazari Sharif [sic] and Governor of Balkh Province.

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 Norullah and four other senior Taliban. Negotiations hinged around sending the five men directly to Doha, Qatar, where they would be allowed to set up an official office for the Taliban.